Hey guys!
Thanks to a great friend, I was able to pick up this lastest addition to my 1870 collection, a AWS 1870 EK I in pretty darn good condition.
Thoughts & comments appreciated
Thanks!
Greg 1870 EK I AWS 014.jpg
Thanks guys!
Vince I'd love to learn more about the cross, core, frame
Appreciate it!
Greg
Greg,
A true beauty.
I'm not sure how much more I can say about the cross, but I can say this: the frame is a very interesting one (to me, the most interesting EK frame out there) as it was used from c. 1890 - 1914 (for 1870 EKs), then from 1914 - 1939 (for 1914 EKs) and then til about 1940 (for 1939 EKs). As such I believe it to be the longest-lasting EK frame known. It is my opinion that it was used from c. 1890 through c. 1930 by AWS, and thereafter by Juncker.
The core is also very interesting to me, as it is the third known 19th C. 1870 core (after the Type A, or award type, and Type B, or early replacement type). I suppose we could start calling this the Type C.
This type is known both vaulted and (less commonly) flat like yours. I have a suspicion that the flat ones are later (perhaps early 20th C.), but I lack real evidence for that. Same goes for the 1914 versions. Per regulation, the Juncker-type 1939 versions were all flat. The hardware on the reverse of yours is the very typical and very simple AWS type hardware. Interestingly, Juncker adopted this hardware style for use on their WWII-era Luftwaffe badges (and perhaps others).
Overall a very nice, beautiful piece with what I suspect is lovely workmanship
Best regards,
Streptile
Looking for ROUND BUTTON 1939 EK1 Spange cases (LDO or PKZ)
I still believe these to be made post 1895 and as such I still refer to them
as a Jubilee cross. A very good quality and well researched style of
variation but still a Jubilee cross.
Personally I would reserve the label "type C" for an award period cross.
But that's just my opinion.
I still believe these to be made post 1895 and as such I still refer to them as a Jubilee cross. A very good quality and well researched style of variation but still a Jubilee cross.
Hi Greg,
I agree with you and also considered this one (probably) a Jubilee cross, i.e. c. 1895. The latest possible date I used to put on them was 1908, since they are shown in AWS's catalogue from that year. However, Vince's example belonged to a man who died in 1891, and so I moved the date tentatively in my mind up to 1890. All in all, I'm not entirely sure; I now just say "c. 1890" until new information surfaces.
Personally I would reserve the label "type C" for an award period cross. But that's just my opinion.
I personally don't care if this one is called a Type C. In my own collection I refer to it as the AWS core. But I'm not sure why we couldn't label a later cross with a letter? Only the Type A is thought to be a wartime core -- with even the Type B a postwar zweitstück, or replacement, style. So we're already in the postwar period with B, why not with C?
Best regards,
Streptile
Looking for ROUND BUTTON 1939 EK1 Spange cases (LDO or PKZ)
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