the OTHER austrian ek1 maker...Ulbricht's Witwe!

[Eric Stahlhut]

when the topic of iron crosses made in austria arises, most people think of rothe and neffe, and few people are aware of another firm that manufactured and marketed them, perhaps as these crosses were also sold to resellers, such as f. sedlatzek in berlin, who stamped them with their own mark.

"Erste Osterreichisch-Ungarische Metallknopfe- und Metallwaren-Fabrik Heinrich Ulbricht's Witwe, Wien" ...sometimes marked, "HUW" or "UW"

this obscure maker made high quality crosses in many grades of silver, including 800, 900, 930, 935, "SILBER". interestingly enough, they are often automatically attributed to sedlatzek, as that berlin firm is more widely recognized. they came with many different types of advanced, peculiar, and attractive attachment systems, and are very desirable to advanced collectors these days.

according to konstantin nikolaev, who in his magnificent two-volume opus on the iron cross (vol. 1, chapter. 31, pages 445-463), he attributes several styles and variations to this maker, including the unmarked version below.

[Chris Boonzaier]

Hi,

any idea how he narrows the cross down to that maker?

All the best

Chris

[Eric Stahlhut]

hi chris,

 i used the google translate app on my phone (pretty cool--you hold the camera to the page and the app automatically translates text on your camera screen--it's majick!!!). it's not as accurate as i'd like and the process is quite laborious, but the gist is that he has been able to narrow the cross to that maker via marked 2nd class versions, material used in manufacturing, and core matches. he goes into quite a bit of technical detail about construction techniques and materials used. he shows 14 examples of this maker in this chapter. pretty sure he states that these are early war, high quality crosses made by special order, mainly first class and unmarked. i think he wrote that this outfit was a wholesaler who made these in bulk lots via special order for resellers such as sedlatzek. which explains why they are unmarked. 

Edited April 18, 2016 by Eric Stahlhut
grammar

[Eric Stahlhut]

here's konstantin's post from 2010

 

[Eric Stahlhut]

here's a first class cross with a blued core that matches konstantin's second class example marked, "HUW"

it has a sedlatzek mark

 

 

[kasle]

I already said when discussing another A-H maker Kuhmayer, that there is more reliable method of translating from azbuka. Make the photo or scan of the page(s) and post it here. I will throw it to English really quickly. You will have it translated and I will have it read. Not a bad deal, hm?

[Eric Stahlhut]

hi, i'm reluctant to post images of the pertinent pages in KN's book because i do not wish to violate any copyright rules; if he were to give me permission i would be more than happy to oblige. hope you understand, kasle. kind regards

[Eric Stahlhut]

and here's another blued core example, this with a 930 mark

 

 

[kasle]

No problem, I understand. But you can send me a pm, or email anytime

[Eric Stahlhut]

i noticed that in my first post i neglected to include that sometimes these crosses are also attributed to c.f. zimmerman.

 anyhow, here's another that i find interesting due to the fact that the front frame is silver while the rear frame is of silvered brass. pin appears to be silver.