Hall of fame of fake "relics"

[Willi Von Klugerman]

How about those strands of "MVR's hair" on ebay for over a $100?

I remember someone on there was selling a square inch piece of fabric from an Albatros DVa.Wondered if it was authentic or not.

['14-'18aviationcollector]

Hi Willi,

I have seen the strands of hair from MvR and have been very tempted to bid on them. I really want to believe that they are authentic, but it's very difficult to not be doubtful of course. The Albatros D.Va fabric is almost certainly authentic. It should be from the restoration of the National Air and Space Museum's Albatros D.Va. The NASM cut most or all of it up and sold it off, as they did with the plywood covering of the fuselage. I wish they had kept the fabric and the plywood skin in large pieces as museum relics.

Regards,

David.

[Kirk]

Originally Posted by rainbase

I have a stash of 8-Track tapes that Oswald Boelcke listened to in his Albatros. Any offers? Lots of good stuff; Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, etc.

Every time I see a thread like this I smile because I think back to that old SNL skit with Father Guido Sarducci buying Jesus' memorabilia. I remember dying laughing when he talked about trying to decide whether to buy Jesus' high school graduation picture but he couldn't confirm it was him since he didn't have a beard yet.

[Willi Von Klugerman]

I mean how on earth did they obtain a strand of his hair?

The Albatros D.Va fabric is almost certainly authentic.

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)

[Chock]

Originally Posted by Willi Von Klugerman

I mean how on earth did they obtain a strand of his hair?

As bizarre as it seems in modern times, that's not that hard to explain. It used to be quite a common thing to carry a lock of someone's hair, to the extent that you can actually find many examples of jewelery made from hair, such as braided bracelets and the like. In 1917, MVR was kind of the equivalent of a pop star in Germany, and it would not be surprising if the barbers who cut his hair realised what a lucrative commodity they had lying on the floor of their shops, and such things would not have been limited to barbers either, since we know MVR's hair was shaved a few times in relation to the head wound he received, so some medical orderly might also have thought to pick some up.

Seems weird to us of course, but actually would not have been that creepy at the time. It's also not beyond the realms of possibility that some Tommy might have done that too when he was found dead in his cockpit, or even a stretcher bearer carting MVR's dead body to the tent where it would have been taken (and I'm not talking about the hair on his head), which is kind of ghoulish, but when you are in a trench and used to death surrounding you, you'd probably not be too squeamish about doing such a thing.

The problem is of course that it is easy to fake, since we all have hair and many of us will have hair that is even the correct colour, so I'd be extremely dubious about such souvenirs, as even ones that might have some convincing tale of provenance might not be genuine. It wouldn't take much for some Tommy who was stationed near where MVR came down to be back home in Blighty and thus able to convince gullible people in pubs that he'd cropped some hair off MVR that he'd be prepared to sell, some people will believe anything if you whisper it too them. If that happened, you'd have someone who'd be absolutely convinced he had the real article, when it could really have been off a dog for all they knew. That's probably what happened with a lot of the canvas that is claimed to be from MVR's Triplane, since it would be easy to cut the red bit off an RAF roundel on a crashed Sopwith Camel and say you got it of his Dr1. Scamming was not invented when ebay came along.

Al

['14-'18aviationcollector]

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.