Looking for crossed swords ribbon devices

[TacHel]

Good day gents! I'm new to these forums and so far am really impressed.

I have several large German Imperial sets from Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria and Wurttemberg, that I just completely remounted. Full cleaning and new ribbons.

I know, to the horror of some of you who prefer old medals "dans leur jus"...

But heh, I prefer them this way. I like medals to look as close as possible to the state they were in the day they were first bestowed. I often display my collection and people generally prefer seeing history rather than having to be explained what those black blotches with frayed ribbons are supposed to look like...

The one thing that so far I have been unable to find are crossed sword ribbon devices for some of these awards. Not the devices for the undress ribbons, but the larger ones that were placed on the ribbon of the medal. I have a few dozen web sites of German merchants but so far have not found a single one with these devices.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Deruelle]

Welcome TacHel

Don't hesitate to show your medals.

Regards

Christophe from France

[Deruelle]

Hi,

The swords you need is like this (ribbon bar from Caspari. found in Efler's book)

[Deruelle]

or like this (ribbon bar belonged to Kurt Treitschke)

[Deruelle]

You can find some of small swords on www.ebay.de but is it rare. A lot of them are made after WW1. So be careful

Regards

Christophe

[TacHel]

Salut Christophe!

The swords are similar to the larger ones but not quite that large. And not quite so perpendicular to one another.

The smaller swords I can easily find, I know a dealer who sells about 7 different models for the ribbon bars.

Here are a couple of my sets:

Cordialement,

Fran?ois

Edited May 9, 2007 by TacHel

[landsknechte]

I hate to be the first one to say it, but you've reduced the resale value of your bars dramatically. In the eyes of most collectors of German medals, there's no way to tell if a bar is a remount or a fabrication, and most will assume that it's a fabrication. At best, you'll get the value of the medals individually.

In the interests of diplomacy, I'll refrain from further comment.

--Chris

[TacHel]

I assure you I am in no way offended by your comments nor would I even presume to question you on that subject. You are absolutely correct, and I've learned over the years not to argue with people that are right, saves a lot of precious energy.

I have no interest whatsoever in EVER reselling any of my medals which FYI, now number over 700 from most major nations (1793 to today). I take great pleasure in exposing them and getting people interested in history, and from my personnal experience found that it is easier to get them interested when what they look at is pleasing to the eye.

I also have medals that are "in their juice" and black as pitch... But those are for my personnal viewing pleasure. The ones I do expose to the general public look like this. When I do kick the proverbial bucket, if my son shows no interest in my collection, they are already hearmarked in my will as going to a museum. So they'll always be for public viewing.

Cheers!