For Research Names! I Don't Need No Stinking Names!

[Ulsterman]

Last Sunday good cousin Rick (the good one- not the evil one) went to the show in Boxboro, Massacusetts. "Good" Rick had earlier bemoaned the quality of the show, stating that it had become a playground for 395 pound Falschirmjager reenactors, second hand Sven Hassel volumes, patch guys, a Beanie Bay table (the end of the line as far as I am concerned) and other unsavory types. Still, hope springs eternal and I hadn't actually seen Rick since 2010, so I drove down , coffee in hand. Rick had promised to give me a CD of the reedited Lubeck rolls and maybe Ted would be there with a researched artillery sword..........

Paying my $3 to the surly, hefty, cigarette-smoking lady at the coffee table promptly at 8:30 am I was sad to note that many tables had that "attacked by seagulls" look that meant the dealers had already pawed over much of what the local pickers had bought. Walking past the over priced Japanese table on the right end of the 1st row, (where I still hold a grudge, since the WAF moderator who owns it sold me a Japanese fake ribbon bar @ 8 years ago that apparently even a child would have recognized- except me, because I am an idiot)...I stopped at 3 large frame-boxes of imperial CDVs which, given their presentation, I assumed must be vastly expensive. Noone was at the table, the seller being otherwise engaged elsewhere. Whilst gazing at the rows and rows of medal-barred officers and men from @1860-1920 I was called over by another " dealer friend" (e.g. someone who is friendly only when they want information from me- but don't ask for a discount) who wanted to show me a Communist Hungarian trumpet banner.

Then Rick arrived...and while i was distracted by questions like "How do you know it is Hungarian? Are you sure it isn't a Hungarian fascist banner? (No- the Horthy regime didn't have big red stars on their flags with "Kivalo Brigagda" on them.....) Rick had the best show of the past 5 years!

The CDVs and postcards turned out to be part of a collection that had been bought in toto and were for sale at $5 each. Rick promptly dropped every penny he had and called in a few favors . With glee he showed me the @ 15 or so CDVs he got and my jaw dropped. Sprinting back to the table all that was left for me when i got there was a few 1870 vets, but I managed to beg another collector to sell me one CDV- at $30 more than he paid for it, a picture of a Lt. Oberst @ 1895 that I knew was incredibly rare. I will post that tomorrow.

In the meantime, Rick had pulled out a pristine Reichsmarine bullion cap badge that was identified as "Japanese merchant navy" for $2 from an old Nike shoebox and then proceeded to discover another mislabeled piece that he paid $1 for........well...more on that later.

Here is one of the CDVs he grabbed- no name -nothing. He identified it in @ 3 hours.

[Eric Stahlhut]

YAY!!!

excellent! great things happen to good people. i love it!

[Ulsterman]

...and here he is...identified from an 1897 Centennial medal, a cockade and a printer's stamp:

Hans Christian Karl Freiherr von Schleinitz. Born Berlin March 16, 1873 , KIA at Villers-sur-Roye on the 14th of November, 1914, son of char. Vizeadmiral aD Georg Freiherr von Scleinitz (1834-1910) and Margot von Hippel (died, 1887)