Les Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 John,Polishing can take most but not every trace of silver off the surface. Heavy polishing will however take a considerable amount of detail off raised surfaces, particularly since silver is harder than brass, and in the process reduce many of those little squiggles to blurs.-Look- at the amount of detail present on the badge. If it had been polished, much of the detail would be gone, and still there would be small traces of silver in the little indentations along the outer edges of the arms of the star, around the base of the arabic writing, and the seal. There's too much detail, and the photo shows -no- trace of silver.Silver exposed to chlorine or salts for example, will damage a silver surface beyond normal tarnish (which is usually due to sulfide exposure...for example sulphur released in burnt coal which was a common fuel source in the not so distant past). Ask women who have worn silver jewelry into a swimming pool what the chlorine did to their silver. The owner of a damaged badge might have decided to strip the silver off completely by using chemicals to remove the pitted/corroded silver finish, or even reverse electrolysis to strip the silver off by using the badge as a "sacrificial diode" or donor source for silver and in the process put the silver on something else instead.Perhaps the owner wanted something different. Remember that red enamelled cresent on Joe Campbell's badge, and the rest of the star being silvered?I could be wrong, but I think it's been chemically stripped of it's silver. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stogieman Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 The real silver variations of this are just the top of the line. There's been a bunch that have come out of the woods over the last year. All very, very nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Tezer Posted February 6, 2006 Share Posted February 6, 2006 The bronze examples I've seen are not BB&Co. I haven't seen very many of them, and I don't recall that any of them were maker marked.Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 One of my favorite awards. Thank you all for sharing your variations and groups. I like the various types of enamel patterns. I agree that 15 is about a good number. Here is one of my favorites by Rothe & Neffe.[attachmentid=26886] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Rothe & Neffe reverse.[attachmentid=26887] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Rick Research Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Ah, now THERE is a distinctive obverse! haven't seen THAT one before, Matt.But the maker was actually Meybauer in Berlin. Similar fussy crest, but the fish tail pin was characteristic of Meybauer's work.Here is a scan of one of Eric Stahlhut's Freikorps items (anybody heard from Eric recently? Ask him to come on over!) showing both the usual Wuzzit "crest" AND full named marking:[attachmentid=26913] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Rich, I am not sure that the 2 crests are the same. It is most interesting and I will try to get a better photo of mine. If you look just below the crown you will see the Meybauer has a line up and one down. The R&N does not. Could they be the same? Very interesting. Thank You! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeikoGrusdat Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 I would say that these 2 crests are different.... not the same firm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Hunter Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Matt, how about a closeup of the mark? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 Sure Bob. This is about as good as I can get because of the concave surface. Hope this will keep the topic going and we will see more Stars from other makers. [attachmentid=26951] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Hunter Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 It looks a little narrower than a typical Meybauer but I can't say it isn't Meybauer. What about some of you Meybauer wizards out there? Any manufacturing telltales on this piece? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe campbell Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 the rothe und neffe crest is not thesame as the meybauer.they are similar MM's from different manufacturers. in fact, if memoryserves me, R&N is austrian...joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Hunter Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 Joe, what is that funny little hat under your name?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Rick Research Posted November 4, 2006 Share Posted November 4, 2006 Perusing this Master Thread just now, it takes SO LONG to download all the many pages that I am going to CLOSE it and any ADDITIONAL stars we can put in a new "Part 2" thread.Will also start a thread ONLY for the documents, since it seems the actual stars and paperwork just get in the way of each other. to you all for all these wonderful examplesRick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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