Posts: 12,074
Threads: 2,592
Joined: Jul 2008
Reputation:
0
The whole point of Blitzkrieg is the fact that there is no frontline. Encircle and destroy. This includes the desk jockeys in the rear. Not one of them put up a standing fight and took one through his XXRKKA for it to survive to now? Nor a single commissar got a round through it when he was being executed?
Still no signs of Great War pieces which is the main concern. There certainly was a lot more of them than 30,000, on the chests of soldiers who had not yet been emancipated and in the horror of trench warfare. Were the Kaiserlich central powers so gentlemanly as to never shoot a serf in the awards?
It certainly seems like there are some discrepancies with the numbers out there but just what is the cause of them?
Market powers me thinks.
"Signed with his own rubber stamp"
Posts: 762
Threads: 29
Joined: Oct 2006
Reputation:
0
It's not just one transaction. Have you been watching eBay? Damaged, ground-dug, and what you believe are "battle-damaged" pieces always go for a significant percentage of the value of a piece in good condition.
You really can't compare this with selling fakes. There are lots of people who don't do their homework and buy fakes thinking they are the real deal. I assume they wouldn't have paid that much if they had known the award was fake.
But even good copies that are advertised as being copies are auctioned off at high prices. Whether or not that's "correct"... That's not up to me. If people want to pay a lot of money for space fillers, be my guest.
Posts: 827
Threads: 99
Joined: Apr 2012
Reputation:
0
The only way to be 100% guaranteed is to have shot the man yourself and taken his medals.
But suchs is the risk we take with all things brought from the past to the present.
As i've said before, if only these awards could talk, then they would be able to tell us exactly what happened!
Tommy
Posts: 1,822
Threads: 186
Joined: Mar 2003
Reputation:
0
Posts: 2,042
Threads: 352
Joined: Jul 2002
Reputation:
0
The hard life this one has lived is part of its history. I'd leave it completely alone. But, then, I am a purist when it comes to the clear-cutting of history.
Posts: 12,074
Threads: 2,592
Joined: Jul 2008
Reputation:
0
Coming from a continent where today is built on yesterday (without getting too Thatcherite!), I would put a strong focus upon the fact that your ownership of this award is now part of its history.
I believe I received a Warsaw in the same condition some years ago which had the purpose of display as it was detached from any history it had had. I removed the ribbon and touched up the original suspension with a cloth and some washing up liquid. I let to ribbon air for a few days as it arrived damp and then gave the medallion a wash. Put it all back together and it was in a happier state than what it had been. Whilst retaining all original parts.
With damage on awards (as with anything else) they are inanimate items and can not tell you if they were aged due to the strange lifestyle of the original recipient or a dealer not giving a damn about it last week.
Don't go putting it in aspic though!
"Signed with his own rubber stamp"
Posts: 2,042
Threads: 352
Joined: Jul 2002
Reputation:
0
I'd suggest that you are not the "owner" of this medal. The owner (and only legitimate owner) was the recipient, known or unknown. You are no more than one in a chain of custodians who have the duty to preserve the medal, as received, and pass it and its history along. I don't think you have the right to engrave your name on the reverse either.
But, in an age where so many worship at the altar of imagined "private property" and desecrate history with gleeful abandon, I know I am in a minority.
And rarely will I feel more conservative that "CtahhR". I must go take a shower to clean up.
Posts: 1,565
Threads: 145
Joined: Jun 2008
Reputation:
0
Hard call, Tommy. For my purposes, I'd leave it alone and hang it in a frame with a brief description of what it is and what it was awarded for. I've never been to a good museum that "fixed" militaria dug out of the ground beyond a bit of brushwork for outward, hardened mud. This applies to everything from awards to medals, to weapons, uniforms, bullets and flags. I think it has a certain "class" just as it is.
Phillip
Phillip
