Help identify this man, PLEASE!!!!

[Brian Dentino]

Hello all. I usually do not post in this forum as this is not my normal area of collecting . However, I received this portrait for a gift today and would like to hear some comments on it and possible help in identifying this person. He is obviously well decorated, and the portrait is signed and dated. What is something like this worth????

Please help me as I have no clue about Imperial militaria what-so-ever.
Much thanks to all of you in advance. I look forward to the responses.

Thanks,
Brian Dentino

[Brian Dentino]

.

[Brian Dentino]

his decorations...........

[Brian Dentino]

and finally a signature and date. Felix ......something??????

[coastie]

That is Lt. Captain Count Von Luckner who commanded the SEEALDER, it was a commerce raider during the First World War. he was also called the "Sea Devil" very successful and quite remarkable that he captured and sank ships but tried not to kill anyone from what I understand. It's been a long time since I read his bio. I don't have any idea on worth of the picture/autograph, there is another thread here that has the same picture. I can't paste the link but it's called "big medals bars....size really matters"

Cheers

[Bob Lembke]

Count von Luckner

Brian;

"Coastie" is indeed correct. Von Luckner was a real character and his two (I believe) books are a great read. I've had one since I was a child. After WW I he seemingly became a good friend of Lowell Thomas, the American journalist and lecturer who also promoted "Lawrence of Arabia", and had quite a world-wide lecture career.

My father met him twice, the first time at a party in Germany. After emigrating to the US in 1926, Pop ran into him a second time walking two poodles on New York's Park Avenue.

As to price, good news and bad news, illustrated by my greatest moment of vunerability on e-Bay. I was bidding for another German PC on German e-Bay, probably illustrating my interest in flame-throwers, and I noticed a second PC closing at about the same instant. It was a PC of von Luckner, probably the same picture as yours, and it had a hand-written message of, say, two sentences on the reverse, and was signed on both sides. I had no specific interest, but decided to go for it also. At least then German e-Bay was tricky as, depending how you got into it, it could work differently, including how a decimal point was represented in your bid. I quickly bid 16.50 Euros, my mind on the other PC, and to my horror the bid turned out to be 16,500 Euros. I had a nightmare image of the dealer somehow knowing and quickly calling his brother-in-law to bid 16,000 Euros. I ended up buying it for about 24.50 Euros, probably a fair price. This was about three years ago. Time has passed, and your photo may be larger, not just a PC, but that may give you an idea as to its value. Von Luckner traveled the world lecturing and must have given out thousands of signed PCs and photos, increasing his fame but certainly making them very common. That is the bad news.

The good news is that the signature is so common that it is very unlikely that it is a fake, and could be easily authenticated. Also that he was an interesting, well-known guy. Get his book; you might get one also signed by him, I suspect. He came from an old cavalry family, but wanted to be a naval officer, and therefore ran away as a child and went to sea "before the mast" as a cabin boy and later a seaman. He was also a boxing champion, and I think Wilhelm II helped him become an officer, fascinated by his story.

Bob Lembke

[Bob Lembke]

Signature

Additionally, his signature is in English and reads "Felix Count Luckner", not the German "Graf von Luckner" or "Felix Graf von Luckner".

He also liked to show off by tearing a phone-book in half with his bare hands; there is a trick to that, but powerful mitts certainly help.
Bob Lembke

[Brian Dentino]

Thanks guys. My picture of Felix is about the size of an 8 x 10 photo. Much larger than a postcard. I still have no idea as for approximate value, though. Since this is much larger than your post card purchase 3 years ago. I am not interested in selling it now, just want a general idea on it's worth. Also, I will be sure to do some reading on this Felix Count Luckner. Sounds like quite a character.

Thanks
Brian Dentino

[McCulloh]

It is real. I have seen dozens of these-many enscribed to Luckners' fans on his book tours in the 1930s in the USA. Brian Strack had a couple for $10 each @4 years ago.Luckner seemed to be quite a ladies man too-many of the enscriptions say stuff like "To the my beautiful Louise, many thanks and eternally beautiful memories of our weekend in Hampton".
He was quite a guy and they were going to make a movie about his expolits in 1940-but cancelled after the Blitz and anti-German sentiment grew. Tyrone Power or Gary Cooper were supposed to play Luckner.
The books are great and he seems to be an an honest example of a couageous and chivalrous officer who "played by the rules" with aplomb and good humour.

[Bob Lembke]

Luckner

Jeff said that von Luckner "played by the rules". The most extreme example of this was when his sail-ship raider got tossed onto a coral reef in the Pacific by a tidal wave after sinking about 15 Allied ships, supposedly without even the loss of a ship's cat, never mind any human life. He and I think five of his men sailed a cutter many hundreds of miles, planning to capture another ship and pick up his men and weapons and resume cruising. (A mate on a modern clipper-sized sailing vessel that I cruised on visited the reef and he took a link of the Seeadler's anchor chain.) They sailed into a Brit colony port and he was eyeballing the ships available when a Brit policeman with a pistol and Bermuda shorts and two unarmed "native" constables came up to them to ask about their business. Von Luckner and his men had Maxims, G98s, P 08s, and hand grenades handy under a blanket, but surrendered to the cop and his bare knees instead of defending themselves and seizing a ship, as they did not have time to put on their naval uniforms.

A lot of his medals were awarded by various states, including the Pope, for his waging war without loss of life, even cat lives, and "playing by the rules". He certainly was a dandy and picked up an amazing set of tales in his exotic life.

Bob Lembke