Quote:
Originally Posted by Willi Von Klugerman
I mean how on earth did they obtain a strand of his hair? 
DANG IT!! Wish I had jumped the chance to buy it!! 
Faked letters/journals are pretty common as well.Though the biggest give away is that they didn't write the date in European 1900's style (date/month/year)  |
Hi Willi,
If it's the fabric I am thinking of, it comes up for sale on eBay very regularly, so you don't have to worry, you will see it again. I know from experience that there are very many relics to be found out there, and I have managed to find quite a few nice relics. A 1" square piece of fabric is not worth worrying about too much when there are some very large pieces out there to be found. Recently I found an original cross on four colour lozenge fabric, although the family is not willing to sell it, because it has been handed down through several generations. The story I was given was that the family had a significant part of MvR's triplane, which I thought was plausible, given the number of souvenirs taken from MvR's triplane which still exist here in Australia. Instead, when I talked to the family directly and saw the relic, they said that it was from an aeroplane from MvR's Jasta. Given that it is four colour lozenge and the very latest version of the German national insignia, it is from very late in the war - I would guess from a Fokker D.VII or a D.VIII / E.V, so there is no way of knowing. It definitely would have been applied in the factory after MvR was shot down, so it could be from any Jasta.
The hair also comes up repeatedly on eBay, so there will be many opportunities to buy it too. My memory of the ad is that the hair for sale is cut from a lock purchased directly from the family, and I think it has documentation to support this. It is of course entirely possible that the hair is genuine, but it could also be faked reasonably easily. Sorting non genuine relics from genuine relics is the most difficult challenge in the field of WW1 aeroplane research.
Regards,
David.