by Harry von Johnston, PhD Now that I am retired from the CIA, I have some free time on my hands so when Mr. Royster asked me to write an article on publications and organizations created for the sole purpose of selling fake daggers and other edged weapons, I accepted it with pleasure. Thanks to my gallery of advanced collectors, I have been able to secure access to new sources of information which are generally unavailable for the majority…
Sometimes in the collecting world, incredible transactions happen. In the present case, a collector in the United States had an original watercolor of French ruins made during the First World War by Adolf Hitler. This had once been in the collection of Heinrich Hoffman, Hitler’s personal photographer, and it ended up in the hands of a collector. He kept this for several years and just recently traded it for an original copy of Hitler’s Last Will and Political Testament and…
Fake and Fantasy German Edged Weapons for Fun and Profit The faking of German swords and daggers began in the early 1960’s when an enterprising American, Lt. Col James Atwood, once of the United States Army and later of the Central Intelligence Agency, then resident in Germany, went to the German city of Solingen and bought up as many bits and pieces of Third Reich German daggers and swords as he could find. The great majority of these surplus pieces…
The SS Standard Bearer’s Gorget M-38 by Dr. Frank Thayer From its inception, SS standard bearers wore the SA gorget but on September 11, 1938, a new gorget was introduced for SS wear. The RZM logo and manufacturer’s code were stamped into the center tang. The gorget, stamped out of nickle-silver, was 19cm wide by 13.5 cm in height. The chain-link suspension was similar in design to the suspension links of the SS dagger, M-36 in that there were alternating…
Here is a DIA presentation of orders and decorations of Soviet Russia. As this is a direct copy and translation of an official Russian publication, it is quite accurate.
We are presenting a partial copy of the German catalog from the Armeemarinehouses of 1914. This catalog listed all of the uniforms and equipment available to officers of the German Imperial Army and Navy at the outbreak of war. As a good part of this lengthy catalog merely lists items without illustration, we have selected all of the illustrations and are showing these in abbreviated but convenient form. And to answer various queries from collectors about the products and appearances…
The Golden Eagle Militaria Forum News Letter The go-to journal for German militaria collectors! Forum Chief…Basil Colon Orders & Decorations WW II Moderator …Saul Scrotum Orders & Decorations post-WWII Moderator …Tansy-Sue Karpowitz Orders & Decorations Godet Black Wound Badges Moderator …Edgar T, Smegma Orders & Decorations Juncker Black Wound Badges Moderator …George Navel Orders & Decorations Fantasy Pieces Moderator …Horst Schwantzfresser Schloss Klessheim Treasures Moderator …Timmy Slatkin Uniforms, Wehrmacht Moderator …Cestus Gorp Uniforms NSDAP Moderator…Mike Hunt Uniforms HJ Moderator…Gwen Twidget…
The Rommel Honor Dagger Many collectors seem to be drawn to technical works that are published solely to sell fakes. These gaudy books contain endless “variant” pieces, “prototypes,” “late-war production” items and many other entertaining holy relics that happen to be in the possession of either the author or one of his partners in crime.
We are presenting a complete copy of the Steinhauer and Lück medal catalog from 1939 with the important 1940 additions. This is part of a series taken directly from original, illustrated material and shows pieces that were period in original and their construction.
This French marshal’s baton was presented to Bazaine and later was donated, by his family, to the French government in Paris. His Second Empire marshal’s baton was on display at the Musée de l’Armée at Las Invilides, 7th Arrondissment, Paris. On May 17, 1987, this baton, and several other historical French military objects, were stolen from the museum. During the theft, a museum security guard was shot, and fatally wounded, by the thieves. In exiting the museum grounds, the thieves…
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