Richarddwh

Showing the crown

I acquired this Oldenburg cross among some other items and have my doubts as to whether its original and would be appreciative of some opinions. The '1914' on the obverse seems wonky, and the paintwork looks more of a gloss then the matt finish I have on another. But then the crown looks quite well defined and there are no obvious casting marks.

A nice set Bryan, particularly like the mini. Out of interest are they all smooth edged versions?

Bryan, they are both for one wound. I think I would have been even more paranoid had the suspect one had a ribbon denoting several wounds!

Bryan, thanks for your response, I suppose I was just a bit worried about the rim being unfinished and slightly ugly looking. However, the ribbon looked fine and had been stitched in place. I feel happier now!

I recently acquired some wound medals, the one on the right looks fine to me, zinc, with a small maker mark, W&A, on the rim. The one on the left gives me some concern. While it has a lot of detail, the rim has an unfinished look to it, it also looks darker than the one on the right. I would be keen to hear if anyone has seen these reproduced, for an inexpensive medal I would be suprised. Any opinions would be welcome.

Aside from the combination and misuse of the sword attachments, the difference in colour of the two bravery medal ribbons would cause alarm to me. The medals themselves seem good. This looks typical of a lot of Austrian medal bars I've seen on ebay that are mounted in the German style. I suspect German style mountings look more attractive to some buyers than Austrian ones. They also seem to attract a higher price.

Excellent, thanks for the comments, I feel a lot better about it now.

I took a punt on this ribbon bar with some other items, but I am little concerned whether its the real thing, or a spare parts jiggery pokery concoction. I think I remember seeing a spate of grey felt backed fakes. I've backlighted the ribbons, they seemed brighter than I would have liked but not the blue glow effect from standard reproduction ribbons. Any opinions would be gratefully appreciated.

Nice to see even a HK ribbon bar can still have a maker's tag! Bleckmann Celle Abzeichen

I can't read this one well Wilhelm ??Hausen, Hannover.

There is also the very faded signature of the CO who signed off the award, readable to anyone?

Thanks for your help Rick, a couple of parts of the document I neglected to include in the previous scan might give confirmation to one of your two names.

I don't posess many award documents, but I recently aquired this rather faded certificate for an officer with his EK. I don't have access to ranklists and was wondering if anyone could shed any light on this individual it would be nice to find out a bit more about him would appreciate any help.

Stijn, A very nice bar, and agree it was mounted by the same person as mine. I was sorely tempted to bid on this when I saw it.

Stijn, I've thought the same thing my self, though probably not very evident from the poor photos is the use of red thread on the obverse of both bars. I've seen this on another bar with a Lubeck.

The reverse of the four place Lubeck bar.

Stijn, thank you for your research, I have to admit to being quite excited at the prospect of identifying this man. I have attached some scans of the reverse, apologies again for the quality. Does anyone know how I can search the Mecklenburg FF cross roll?

Rick, even to my untrained eye the handwriting looked all over the place! Apologies for the quality of the scan. David, I bought the bar with the postcard from ebay, the postcard could have therefore been added, though it wasn't actually listed with the bar when I bought it, it just arrived with it. I seem to be struggling with posting images due to the reduction in the quality. Could I possibly email the image to you in a larger file size?

Looks like the award criteria.

Thanks Stijn, these two bars are among my favourites. I don't possess any attributable bars so would be keen to trace the recipient of one of these. I've taken a couple more scans of the reverse of the postcard.

Front of postcard

My two bars. The five place bar came with the postcard that I hoped might indicate the recipient but I can't translate it well enough.

This bar flouts regulations.

Thanks for the responses, though very good point about Prussian medal. I feel Hunyadi had a good point about expecting to see the Austrian WW1 Commemorative medal and the Hungarian WW1 Commemorative Medal also present. That could possibly depend on whether a veteran could be bothered to add those on, a nice newly acquired 1938 October 1 medal however, would be a must have addition.