Imperial Russia Milit?r Maria Theresien Orden Bruststern on eBay?

[KeithB]

Would anybody care to comment?

Does Carsten Zeige really sell stuff on eBay?

Please excuse me if I am being na?ve.

Thank You.

http://cgi.ebay.de/Militaer-Maria-Theresie...1QQcmdZViewItem

[Tim Tezer]

Carsten Zeige sometimes has direct sale merchandise on his web site, so why not on Ebay? Other auction companies and dealers have done it as well. It's just another way to reach a wide buyer base.

As for the breast star, it is described as "post 1918", made by Rothe. Bear in mind that Rothe made numerous copies of rare and valuable orders well into the 1970's and possibly even later. They are well known as copies - filler pieces, if you will. Their price is determined by what the market will bear and has nothing to do with the value of an original.

Tim

[KeithB]

Thanks for the response.

[Appy]

Meanwhile... of course... this is an Austrian order that dates to the waning days of the Holy Roman Empire. This fake looks pretty good in the photo.

[paul wood]

Meanwhile... of course... this is an Austrian order that dates to the waning days of the Holy Roman Empire. This fake looks pretty good in the photo.

.

The late Rothe pieces are not fakes per se, they were made for collectors who could not conceivably afford, let alone find, the originals. The quality of manufacture was good. The main problem with the rare Austrian orders made by Rothe in the 50s-70s, is that a certain person in Germany applied false Austrian silver marks to pass them off as original pieces of the Great War period.

An amusing story not related to the above German mentioned. Rothe in the period mentioned was owned by two sisters, the last members of the family. Around the 1960's the late, lamented? master Ernst Blass attempted to marry one of the sisters but without success. Perhaps his line of "What beautiful babies we could make" didn't go down too well.

In my opinion late Rothe pieces are perfectly valid to have in a collection of world orders unless you are a Russian oligarch and can afford the originals.

[Elmar Lang]

The breast star pictured above, actually doesn't look like a piece made by Rothe in Vienna, but in my opinion it can be a copy of a Rothe copy made by Horvath in Budapest, in the late '90s of 20th Century. Such copies of copies are made of cast metal (sometimes silver alloy), and the pin (cast from a Rothe copy too), bears the marks of Rothe.

I agree with Paul, that a Rothe copy made in the '60s can be a very good substitute of a highly expensive MMThO Grand Cross.

Collecting Rothe copies, can be interesting and amusing: the Viennese firm had dies to make orders from all over the world (and they made them even back in the 19th Century).

I didn't know that Mr. Bl. attempted to marry one of the sisters Rothe. I knew the two ladies, back in the 70s: I remember two kind ladies patient enough to give answers to my questions (the typical, annoying questions of a young collector...).

E.