Walter Schott Imperial U-Boat

[greg1878]

Hi guys, as promised in another thread, here is a Walter Schott Imperial U-Boat that is due to land this week. It has most of the green wash on the obverse which for many years was thought to be verdigris and removed by collectors.
It took me some time to find one like this
Any comments are welcome.
Cheers - Greg

[greg1878]

x

[Don D.]

Very nice original. Too bad so many collectors have cleaned them over the years.....

[AFF96]

That's a beauty. As Don said, not often weget to see a Schott U-boat with the green. Very attractive piece!!

[morel5000]

Super badge!

As Fec comes from Fecit, who made it, and the designer was Schott.

Did he designed the U-boat badge in general or just this type?

So who produced this badge?
And why shouldn't this mark be on any other u-boat badge, e.g. the S&L design?
Anyone has any knowledge/ answers?

Thanks,
Michel

[greg1878]

Super badge!

As Fec comes from Fecit, who made it, and the designer was Schott.

Did he designed the U-boat badge in general or just this type?

So who produced this badge?
And why shouldn't this mark be on any other u-boat badge, e.g. the S&L design?
Anyone has any knowledge/ answers?

Thanks,
Michel

Hi Michel, my badge will appear in a forthcoming article of Bender's 'Military Advisor' by Gordon Williamson, he goes into detail about the design, production and sales of the badge. Without stealing his thunder, there is clear evidence that Schott not only designed this badge, he also produced and sold it. It is also clear that the green colour is an applied finish to the earliest awards.
Cheers - Greg

[Gary B]

Hi Greg,

It seems like this thread ended up gettgin discussed over on the other thread of U-Boats!

Thanks for the info. I look forward to Gordon's informaiton as well.

Gary B

[Gary B]

Well I have to admit that, initially, I was somewhat skeptical about the green finish on these, but to add more to this thread, Weitze posted a U-Boat badge with what I would call the green wash type of finish (similar to the naval Commemorative Zeppellin badges). see below link

https://www.weitze.net/detail/99/U_B..._198399_e.html

Gary B

[Matthew]

It is also clear that the green colour is an applied finish to the earliest awards.
Cheers - Greg

Here is a color period picture of unissued Schott badge taken in 1918.

I would be interested in how it was determined that the aforementioned green finish was indeed factory applied.
Picture credit: Ullstein Bild


cheers

Matt

[Kaleun]

I would have thought that the "green colour" is a case of verdegris, in other words: "rott" that needs to be removed?

[Brian L.]

I'm with the camp that says the green is the original painted color and not verdegris. I have seen too many of these over the years with discernible green paint on them in varying stages of wear, not to believe that it was intentional and to the war-time period.

[Matthew]

Pssst...I got a bridge to sell

Following that logic it would be easy to believe that every cooper roof is intentionally painted green- after all you can seen a lot of them in varying stages of wear, exhibiting green colored top layer.
I got the feeling that even if Schott himself was to make an appearance here explaining the ins and outs of the badge's production process most would keep on shaking their heads.
In any event- as posted above- a Schott badge in war time dated, color photo showing original finish. No sign of 'original painted color' but lots of burnished fire gilding- like it should be.
Anyone has a proof to back up their theory of factory applied green painted finish?

cheers

Matt

[Brian L.]

Mathew

While I don't have any proof of factory-applied green paint, I can easily tell the difference between verdigris and paint pigment. The many I have seen (and the few I've owned) over the last 40+ years had paint, not verdigris. For one thing, the green of verdigris is a completely different green shade than what is being discussed here.

Not all Walter Schott badges are the same. Therefore, there were likely different finishes, including the fire-gilt that your photo shows.

[Matthew]

sorry, I call BS on this idea

Are you saying that some Schott badges were fire gilded with burnished highlights like shown above but some were painted green?
It doesn't even make sense.
First it was not every uboat badge but all of Schotts now its just some? So who were the lucky ones? Ones receiving the sparkly and glittery badges or the ones with green bugs hanging off their uniforms?

Anyways- I appreciate your input even if I do not agree with you.

Last time I mentioned the fact of verdigris I was met with a lot of 'intentional green paint' comments from a lot of people here- this time it is surprisingly quiet. Now would be a good time to prove their theory of manufacturers painting those badge green before shipping them off to the recipients.
Anyone?

[Don D.]

Search the threads for the proof yourself. Why is it we have to keep 're-providing things? How do you know when that pic was taken? Just because it was labeled and put on line does not make it so. GW provided it with period documentation.