Hungarian Air Force Collection

[Delis]

Hi I bought these from a estate sale in Canada and I'm looking to find out what they are and what it's worth for the hole collection for Insurance purposes. If you have any info or estimate price on these could you please help me I would truly appreciate it. Thank you

[Gordon Craig]

Delis,

You have a mixture of time frames here. My knowledge base is in the Communist era but I'll have a go at some of these as far as identification goes. I don't know prices in Canada. Only what I would pay for them in Hungary. The first two are probably current issue. #1 is probably a pilots wings and #2 is a general badge worn by all members of the Hungarian Armed Forces on the dress tunic above the right breast pocket. This particular one would probably be for an army officer. #3 could be for a wartime pilot but that is just a guess. #4 I don't know. #5 - are collar tabds for current air force wear. You have them shown upside down to the way they would be worn on a tunic. #6 - Don't know but possible Danube Flottila. #7 - don't know. #8 - don't know. #9 - looks like a dagger of some kind but the pictures are too small to make even an educated guess. #10 - again small picture makes it difficult to tell-possibly lapel pin from the Horthy era. #11 and 12 - pre-war dagger. These are heavliy faked and authentic ones are hard to find. It would take an expert, such as my friend Hunyadi, and much better pictures to judge originality.

Regards,

Gordon

[Delis]

Thank you Gordon for everything as I'm new to the forums and would be willing to take better quality pictures of the Air Force Dagger. I was told the gentleman that passed was a Hungarian Air Force pilot and that's why I bought the collection.

[Delis]

The Hungarian Air Force dagger

[Gordon Craig]

Delis,

I don't know enough about these daggers to make any firm statements but this does not look authentic to me. There have been posts on this forum in the past with pictures of authentic daggers. I'll see if I can find them and post a link to them.

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

Delis,

Here is a link to a thread started by my friend Hunyadi on Hungarian daggers. He starts with an authentic dagger and you can compare it to the one you bought. I met Hunyadi when we both lived in Budapest.

Regards,

Gordon

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php/topic/35117-hungary-ww2-air-force-dress-daggers/page__hl__%2Bhungarian+%2Bdagger__fromsearch__1

[Markgraf]

Hi I bought these from a estate sale in Canada and I'm looking to find out what they are and what it's worth for the hole collection for Insurance purposes. If you have any info or estimate price on these could you please help me I would truly appreciate it. Thank you

#4 Royal Hungarian Air Force dress belt buckle, seems copy

#5 current Hungarian Air Force 1st Lieutenant dress uniform collar insignia

#6 surely not hungarian, but a bit similar for WWII Hungarian Air Force 1st Lieutenant shoulder boards

#7 Magyar Veterán Repülő Egyesület (Hungarian Veteran Airman Association) probably tie pin

#9 seems dagger brooch (clothing jewel for wifes and girlfriends of Hungarian pilots)

The most of the collection seems a replacement of the lost original WWII things of a veteran Royal Hungarian Air Force 1st Lieutenant.

[oldlincolnian]

I recognise these items from the HACS show in Chilliwack a few weeks ago. I drove out from Vancouver to look at them after a friend sent me a quick photo. Sadly the lot was very disappointing. The dagger IS a fake and there are missing broken off bits. The top left wing is one which was brought in to use for a very short time after the fall of the communist regime, trying to emulatre the old wartime badge. It was a very poor effort and was quickly replaced by metal wings. Its value is in its scarcity now. The middle "wing" is a branch of service badge as discussed by others, basically it says "Hungarain military". The right hand wing is a 1942-45 air force pilot wing which was used in parralel with the wartime bullion wing, a handsome wing and valuable when complete, but a shame that its back was detached and it was glued onto the felt. The large round item is the uniform coat belt buckle. I had my doubts in my cursory look as to whether that too was genuine, but I am not sure on that score. The tie pin wing...not sure what that one was. The blue badge is a Hungarian state approved glider pilot qualification wing for class A,B and C qualification, a nice badge! There was also a Tasmanian Aeroclub badge with the lot and I tried to find out if the owner had been a member there but he had not, so i am not sure what the relevance of that was. The value here is in the three wings, the modern one, the wartime one and the glider badge . Had the condition been better and if the dagger had been genuine, not a broken copy, the price you paid would have been a bargain, without a doubt, but you probably got your money's worth