Flayderman auction results

[joegertler]

Surprised no one has commented on the Butterfield's/Flayderman auction of (mostly) WWI aviation material. The Richthofen cup went for $24,000 plus 15% buyers premium, bringing it to $27,600. Values of signed items, medals, uniforms, seemed pretty strong. You could follow the bidding with a live Internet feed for the 12plus hours of the auction. Too much to comment on in a brief post. Sure would like to hear a report from someone who was THERE, when they get home. I noted a few real bargains. But they were few and far between. Like EVR's book contract.

How about the "Zeppelin propeller" that sold for $1300? It was only 36 inches long and stamped "DRG No. ...", which sounds fairly English to me. I don't know anything about Zeppelins, so maybe I shouldn't assume it wasn't a Zeppelin prop, but it sounded fishy at best. I thought the few propeller related items (my only real interest) went for higher prices than I would have anticipated.

Could it have been a generator propeller or some such? Would the slower airspeed of a Zep require a larger propeller than an aircraft for the generator? Certainly couldn't have been for one of the engines...

I assumed it was a generator prop from something, but why would the data be in English instead of German?

But, back to the auction...

The West German government tried in vain for years to get Russia to return the items taken from the Richthofen home in 1945. I wonder what implications there are for the resurfacing of this victory cup. Doesn't it rightfully (legally?) belong to Germany? I'm also curious about its authenticity -- wouldn't it be easy to forge such an item? It is essentially a plain silver cup with engravings.

Jack

Joe,

Well I can tell you that I was outbid "just barely in some instances" on my absentee bids. I guess if I was there it would have made a difference. The realized prices are up now for you to look over and the one that surprized me was the Pathfinder compass that sold for over $4000. Thats just plane nuts! I paid less than 1 thousand for mine and that was just 2 years ago! Not many bargans is right!

Rick,
You could have bid 'live'. None of my absentee bids came even close, but I got one item that I feel was a deal and one that was what I believe to be a 'fair' price, when I bid 'live'. Most items were way high to my way of thinking. The silver Rickenbacker trays seemed kind of suspect to me. They were on for about 2 seconds and declared sold to the first bidder!! But, of course, I wasn't there to see the 'real' action. I suspected the estimated value was real low on the uniform items, but I wasn't ready for the prices that most went for. There was one 'deal' on an RFC pilot maternity tunic, but I missed that one.
Someone stated that the auction results were now available-is that on the internet?
Thanks,
Steve

[Amy]

I spoke with Neal O'Connor regarding that MvR "Victory" cup. Some points Neal made is one that has been mentioned before, in almost every German account "Vickers" was spelled "Vikkers". The quality of the engraving from Flayderman's cup doesn't appear to measure up to the standards at the time. Also, earlier victory cups for MvR's kills on 01/23/17 and 01/24/17 (also generic "Vikkers" planes) were engraved for F.E.8 and F.E.2 respectively. Why would MvR then tell the Berlin jeweler to change to "Vickers" to for a victory cup over an F.E.2b on 4/22? Although MvR's mother apparently sold a few of her son's items, it isn't known that she ever sold a victory cup but rather kept that cup collection in tact. No other cups have surfaced.