Richthofen Collectable

Is this for real? <_<

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...2268313565&rd=1

[Harris Hawk]

I&#39;m no expert, but it doesn&#39;t look right to me. The piece may be genuine from the time, but things like this usually have been well documented before now. The icing on this cake is the seller. While he does appear to deal in militaria, you just have to wonder how a powerseller gets ahold of something like this. One of the things bothering me about the piece itself is that from the photos, it appears the mold lines are very soft and rounded. This is typical of a piece that was copied, a mold made from the original and copies made from there. The few original WW1 German medals/pins I have are all crisp, even when mass-produced.
Maybe someone with more knowledge will jump in.

[PeterL]

It&#39;s a pressing rather than a casting Neil, and very cheap and nasty it looks too. Not the kind of thing we might associate with someone of MvR&#39;s status by 1917. His jeweller would be horror stricken. Except for some implied but unspecified provenance I don&#39;t see the connection anyway.

Hi Rick,

You know, I am member of that forum, but I didn&#39;t think enough to post there. I will give it a try, and let you know what they say. Thanks. I appreciate your inputs as well Peter and Harris

regards

[Rick]

WW: Since I screwed up the web address, I removed my message, Anyway, for anyone one cares, it&#39;s called something like Wehrmacht awards. R.

Hi Rick,

I just posted the question on the forum. The link is:

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/sho...3013#post563013

regards

Sorry to report that Richthofen&#39;s pin was shot down in flames by the experts on the awards forum. They are still yukking it up over there....

regards

[Jim]

The seller is a very long-time dealer in militaria on the East Coast. I remember seeing him producing militaria shows back in the late 70s and early 80s and I thought he was an old-timer then. He always had the largest booth at those shows and he had a real range of stuff that appeared to my eyes to be a hodgepodge of good items and fakes - all with what seemed to be the highest prices in the room. The scan is not great so it is hard to tell, but this pin seems to me to fall into the category of "not right" and the provenance offered of "the guy who I got it from told me that" is not provenance at all. Provenance is something like period photos showing it being worn/used by the person claimed and/or a document from Mutti von R. stating it was hers so that there can be no question as to its authenticity.

[FinnN]

Whilst obviously sometimes you&#39;re happier with some purchases than others on eBay there&#39;s only one time I&#39;ve bought something on eBay where I&#39;ve thought "Doh&#33;" - and it was from that guy. Luckily it was just a photo so nothing too expensive, but still it was a) a post WW2 press photo (and clearly stamped on the back as such) of B) a scanned in page from a WW1 issue of the French magazine "L&#39;Illustration" and c) the photo even still had the staples visible from the spread and the page/issue stuff at the bottom&#33; None of that was visible in scans. As it was an early purchase from eBay by me I let it pass, but I&#39;d never buy anything from him again. I was really kicking myself when I noticed the photo only a few days after the Snyder one arrived (I have a set of bound volumes of L&#39;Illustration).

Hilarious posts about the badge on the other forum BTW

Have fun
Finn