EK1 engraving on KO cross OPINIONS PLEASE

[pep]

comments welcome ....

[GdC26]

Always hard to judge from pics, especially the rather hard to read pic of the back, but to me its bad - patina is gone in the area of the engraving, there seem to be fresh lines to guide the engraving, and I've never seen the letter "m" marked like seems to be the case on the cross you have shown. Sorry, but based on what I see I would pass (even if it is hard to make out the full text to see if that makes sense and is correct in terms of spelling and grammar).

Inscription itself seems a bit unusual (if not outright odd) to me as as well, as far as I can read it from the poor pic posted.

[Mike Kenny]

Hi pep,

A nice genuine cross with what to me looks like some some period professionally done engraving - you can still see the scribed guide lines, making the dedication very neat.

Regards
Mike

[gregM]

I like the style of the engraving. I have no clue whether the text or
punctuation is correct but it looks the way that I would expect it to.

[GdC26]

Always hard to judge from pics, especially the rather hard to read pic of the back, but to me its bad - patina is gone in the area of the engraving, there seem to be fresh lines to guide the engraving, and I've never seen the letter "m" marked like seems to be the case on the cross you have shown. Sorry, but based on what I see I would pass (even if it is hard to make out the full text to see if that makes sense and is correct in terms of spelling and grammar).

Inscription itself seems a bit unusual (if not outright odd) to me as as well, as far as I can read it from the poor pic posted.

A good friend just told me that the strich above the m is an old notation to double the consonant, so that is encouraging. Still, the fact that the back of the cross is patinated but the area of the engraving looks like it was wiped clean, with even no traces of patina in the engraving, troubles me.

[gregM]

I understand your concern, especially when it comes to paying a premium
price for an engraved cross.
It could be that the the collector who owned this cross would just wipe the area that had the engraving or did a quick cleaning before selling to the dealer.

There will always be a question about engraved pieces unless it is handed
directly from a family member.

[Don D.]

I like it. I think someone cleaned it to read the engraving. It look like it still has patina in the letters.

[GdC26]

As said, I don't see the patina in the lettering. And the dedication is weirdly generic and strange of itself.

It's a bit hard to make out from the poor pic, but I read "Kom(m)t Ihr das Glück zum Greifen nah - so nimm - Füllst Du ins Wasser, dann schwim(m)", which translates into something like "If luck comes your way, then grab it, if you fall into water then swim".

"Füllst" should be Fällst (and maybe it is, the pic is to bad to be definitive) and whereas "schwimm" and "Kommt" are written with the "Strich", "nimm" is not - but that may be due to spacing issues in the first and last line. I would expect an " 's" after "nimm" (grab it, rather than just "grab"), and the engraver sure had space to add that one : but in itself, that doesn't disqualify the engraving as bad per se, and without the “‘s”, it rhymes.

However, the text is weirdly generic, as if someone copied it from a book of old sayings. No date, no name, no reference to an event, nothing that personalizes it. Who knows, it might be good (the style, as others have pointed out, is consistent with that of contemporary engravings) but personally, I still am not sold on it, because of what appears to be a lack of patina in and around the engraving, and because of the completely generic text, which seems to have little to do with the award of an EK I (yes, it could be a dedication to a pilot who downed a plane and then had to ditch in water - but in that case, without solid provenance ..... ).

[Gerdan]

I read

" Kom(m)t Dir das Glück zum Greifen nah - so nimm's - fühlst Du in's Wssser, dann schwim(m) ! "

Gerdan

[GdC26]

I read

" Kom(m)t Dir das Glück zum Greifen nah - so nimm's - fühlst Du in's Wssser, dann schwim(m) ! "

Gerdan

Thanks Gerdan. you're correct, I mistyped "Dir" (but translated it correctly). Doesn't affect my observations, though.
Is this a saying or expression in German? I couldn’t find it on a quick search.

[ROBB]

Very cool cross I like it too . Rob

[VtwinVince]

I like the style of the engraving, but as said, the content is very unusual.

[pep]

hello everbody ... thanks for posting.

unfortunately can't post better pic. is the only one I got. will post better ones if finally I purchase it.

don't hesitate to place further comments

[GdC26]

As said, I don't see the patina in the lettering. And the dedication is weirdly generic and strange of itself.

It's a bit hard to make out from the poor pic, but I read "Kom(m)t Ihr das Glück zum Greifen nah - so nimm - Füllst Du ins Wasser, dann schwim(m)", which translates into something like "If luck comes your way, then grab it, if you fall into water then swim".

"Füllst" should be Fällst (and maybe it is, the pic is to bad to be definitive) and whereas "schwimm" and "Kommt" are written with the "Strich", "nimm" is not - but that may be due to spacing issues in the first and last line. I would expect an " 's" after "nimm" (grab it, rather than just "grab"), and the engraver sure had space to add that one : but in itself, that doesn't disqualify the engraving as bad per se, and without the “‘s”, it rhymes.

However, the text is weirdly generic, as if someone copied it from a book of old sayings. No date, no name, no reference to an event, nothing that personalizes it. Who knows, it might be good (the style, as others have pointed out, is consistent with that of contemporary engravings) but personally, I still am not sold on it, because of what appears to be a lack of patina in and around the engraving, and because of the completely generic text, which seems to have little to do with the award of an EK I (yes, it could be a dedication to a pilot who downed a plane and then had to ditch in water - but in that case, without solid provenance ..... ).

Perhaps U-boot related? Then I would all the more want to see solid provenance, but then at least the text would make some sense .... Pep, without better pics or further info there is little further that can be said about this cross.

[pep]

Perhaps U-boot related? Then I would all the more want to see solid provenance, but then at least the text would make some sense .... Pep, without better pics or further info there is little further that can be said about this cross.

thank you so much!!