Luftwaffe Rare piece to be auctioned.

[J Temple-West]

Having received notification of the next Hermann Historica auction, I notice yet another Combined Pilot-Observer Badge in Gold with Diamonds in the next sale…this time for Bruno Loerzer.

It will interesting to see a close-up of the badge/case in the preview when published.

http://www.hermann-historica.de/auktion63/pdf/flyer/Zeitgesch_01.pdf

[Chris Boonzaier]

You know how when all these celebrities who believe in reincarnation were always Catherine the Great or Atilla the hun in a previous life...

Well... of the 106 given out, many, many to people we have never ever heard of.... why are the 3 last ones for sale to "names" i.e. Skorzeny, Sperrle, Loerzer.... and not to unknowns like Müller, Schmidt and Hans-Peter? What happened to the badges given to unknowns?

Or do originals from "unknowns" ger re-pedigreed to become badges to famous people

From what I understand, a couple of British collector/dealers have fantastic medal making silver and gold smiths working for them, one example being the bomb plot wound badges... are the combined P/O also being done?

[PKeating]

Gosh. They're pushing it, aren't they? I must say that the DGW cases are a smooth touch but perhaps a bit too clever-by-half. All good points from Chris there too.

PK

Edited September 12, 2011 by PKeating

[PKeating]

Here's a clue to where all these variants in DGW cases are coming from. I can't give the name of the author of this script but, trust me, he's been active since the 1950s. When you read something like this in one of these auction catalogues, remember that you read it here first. How long before we see a timeline analysis of these badges by the hip new authors, with the usual shills popping up to support them, assuring us that there were three types of A-Stück wreaths and four types of eagle, all made by different DGW jewellers for recipients who wanted dress copies, and that after Göring confiscated them, they were not in fact destroyed and survived, hidden in the army trunk of a US veteran who found over forty of these badges in the ruins of the DGW in Berlin in June 1945 and sent them all home to his sister? They are all genuine! The veteran's sister said so.

[Chris Liontas]

From what I understand, a couple of British collector/dealers have fantastic medal making silver and gold smiths working for them, one example being the bomb plot wound badges... are the combined P/O also being done?

Wow, I wonder when it was the first time we discussed this? It had to have been ten years ago. In that time, I wonder how many people have been burned by these, and the U-boat badges with Diamonds.

[PKeating]

There are around fourteen of these fake PO Diamonds Badges in circulation that we know of. They seem to be flooding back onto the market as Russian millionaire collectors get rid of disposables. Naturally, the dealers and auction houses involved in swindling these 'new collectors' cannot really turn them away when they get back in touch because there is a lot of money involved so they are really between a rock and a hard place.

The PO Diamonds Badges are far from the only high end items pushed into these markets in the past decade. And thick-necked Russian Hitler fans with more roubles than brain cells aren't the only victims. There is Mr "Chen", who risks being banned from the other place by the watchdogs there because he is starting to get a bit chippy. He's believed to be the lucky chap who bought Hermann Göring's Grand Cross document from the same dealer who has been selling all sorts of cobbled-up exotica for years, including Heinrich Himmler's medal bar, which went to a chap in Chicago.

The whereabouts of the original medal bar, complete with full documentation, is known to a few serious collectors and students of the subject. As "Wilbur Stump" remarks, coming back to these fake PO Diamonds badges, the Martin Harlinghausen PO Diamonds Badge has been mentioned, apparently touted about in one of these blue velvet German Goldsmith Guild cases. The problem is that the Harlinghausen family is reportedly in possession of all of Martin Harlinghausen's decorations and documents.

Other sources say the Harlinghausen badge that has been shown around at shows, in dark corners, is the real badge but contained in a questionable DGW case. As far as I am concerned, if the buyers of these badges cannot be bothered to acquaint themselves with known originals before blowing their money, tufski shitski. But I wouldn't want to be one of the dealers or auctioneers who knowingly screwed someone who might enjoy killing or kneecapping people before breakfast. Screwing some fat, blowhard Westerner is one thing. Swindling orientals is a whole other ball game.

Personally, I am looking forward to the inevitable dissertation on the timeline of these badges. It has already been explored, with some people who ought to know better attempting to promote the theory that there were as many as three types of original A-Stück badges between 1935 and 1945. This is akin to the dreamers and delusional telling us that a 1982 set of Oakleaves by Godet can be differentiated from a 1942 set because of a special mark incorporated in the restrike that is known only unto the inner sanctum of collectors.

Anyway, people will believe what they prefer to believe. All I know is that it seems as if whenever anyone puts anything nice and genuine up for sale these days, in terms of Third Reich gear, they have a hard job selling it but we see all of these flagrant fakes changing hands for tens of thousands of bucks.

Weird...

Edited September 13, 2011 by PKeating

[PKeating]

From what I understand, a couple of British collector/dealers have fantastic medal making silver and gold smiths working for them, one example being the bomb plot wound badges... are the combined P/O also being done?

A lot of high quality fakes of Imperial and Third Reich-era decorations and badges were produced in Britain from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s by several individuals or, to be more precise, jewellers and craftsmen commissioned by them. Dies were produced by engravers with Royal Mint and Franklin Mint backgrounds. It did not just involve German awards. The fakers strayed into forgery, which is dangerous territory, when they produced medals like the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the latter being impressed with an ex-government machine. And then there were the Steinhauer & Lück Knight's Cross dies, offered around in London in the summer of 1981 and eventually sold to a leading dealer of the time, who is now in disgrace. This is the dealer who also commissioned aluminium wire copies of embroidered insignia from Israel Hand, together with other London dealers, and who had a deal going with the equally disgraced Dr Klietmann to pass restrikes made using various Godet dies onto the market.

Copies of the Pilot-Observer Badge in Gold with Diamonds have been produced for at least the past thirty years. The example adorning the dummy of Hermann Göring in the RAF Museum at Hendon is an example, although it was commissioned by Eric Campion as a museum replica rather than with any intent to fool people. A noted collector and author who has the genuine Göring badge that was in the Campion collection for years had a replica made by the master jeweller Keith Thompson for Roger Honts but has indicated that he only supplied one such badge to Mr Honts because he believed that Honts had this badge copied in the United States. Honts will be familiar to some of you as the man convicted of masterminding a raid on the home of John Angolia. He was also sued successfully by the Colorado collector Bill Simmons, who had purchased $120,000-worth of high end Nazi memorabilia, only to find that it was all fake. Juli 20 1944 Wound Badges have been made in Britain and passed into collections, complete in some cases with award documents.

There is also a California jeweller, himself a collector, whose services are used by one or more of the prominent West Coast dealers and possibly by some of the Eastern US dealers whose names figure large in the MAX Show line-up and the MAX-Approved scam run by we-know-who. Someone really ought to write a book on these characters before the Russian and Chinese marks they have recently been swindling do Jimmy Hoffa numbers on them.

PK

[Tom D.]

I would buy that book in a heartbeat Prosper! I think it is always interesting to hear some of the sorted history that has taken place in our hobby, especially the things that have happened before younger collectors like me got into the hobby. Very interesting...and disturbing at the same time. Thanks for a brief history lesson!

Tom

[censlenov]

I'd love to read that book also

Cheers

Chris