Hello all,
Just wanted to take a few minutes to recommend a good reference book.
"The German Luftwaffe Pilot and Combined Pilot and Observer badges of World War II - 1933 - 1945" by our forums' very own Sébastien Talbot. I cannot recommend it enough. I have several pieces from my personal collection showcased in both volumes. I am going to be posting some photos that I took of the text and will go into further details on what makes this such an amazing reference to have on hand.
Regardless of your level of collecting, this book is a quintessential piece to understanding the basic concepts of badge manufacture. For instance, Seba painstakingly goes into the minute details that teach a collector what to look for on each maker. Generally speaking, these badge makers used a lot of similar production processes along their product line. With that being said, once you know what to look for on an Assman Luftwaffe pilot badge, it makes authenticating other Assman products much easier, i.e. Flak & Para badges, etc. because of the traits they hold through what their catches look like, their rivets, their wreaths, and so on.
The book covers what materials these badges were made in, buntmetal/tombak, feinzinc, etc. Sébastien covers every detail of every known maker, he covers documents, the badges themselves and the fakes - it goes on and on - cases, cloth awards, he shows photos of the badge in wear, discusses award criteria and he even ties everything to history and the background behind the decorations and the soldiers that received them. After everything I just rattled off the most impressive part is that the reading is easy and the material is presented in a way that is simple to understand. Really, there's not much which could have been improved on in my opinion.
Personally, I think this book is hands-down one of the most essential award references out there. If you have a genuine interest in learning how to identify maker traits and truly understanding the trinkets we collect (Luftwaffe badge collector or not) then no library should be without it. I cannot recommend this book highly enough to all of you.
If you haven't picked up the reference, I highly suggest you do and hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
William Kramer
Just wanted to take a few minutes to recommend a good reference book.
"The German Luftwaffe Pilot and Combined Pilot and Observer badges of World War II - 1933 - 1945" by our forums' very own Sébastien Talbot. I cannot recommend it enough. I have several pieces from my personal collection showcased in both volumes. I am going to be posting some photos that I took of the text and will go into further details on what makes this such an amazing reference to have on hand.
Regardless of your level of collecting, this book is a quintessential piece to understanding the basic concepts of badge manufacture. For instance, Seba painstakingly goes into the minute details that teach a collector what to look for on each maker. Generally speaking, these badge makers used a lot of similar production processes along their product line. With that being said, once you know what to look for on an Assman Luftwaffe pilot badge, it makes authenticating other Assman products much easier, i.e. Flak & Para badges, etc. because of the traits they hold through what their catches look like, their rivets, their wreaths, and so on.
The book covers what materials these badges were made in, buntmetal/tombak, feinzinc, etc. Sébastien covers every detail of every known maker, he covers documents, the badges themselves and the fakes - it goes on and on - cases, cloth awards, he shows photos of the badge in wear, discusses award criteria and he even ties everything to history and the background behind the decorations and the soldiers that received them. After everything I just rattled off the most impressive part is that the reading is easy and the material is presented in a way that is simple to understand. Really, there's not much which could have been improved on in my opinion.
Personally, I think this book is hands-down one of the most essential award references out there. If you have a genuine interest in learning how to identify maker traits and truly understanding the trinkets we collect (Luftwaffe badge collector or not) then no library should be without it. I cannot recommend this book highly enough to all of you.
If you haven't picked up the reference, I highly suggest you do and hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
William Kramer
Comment