Award help needed please

[Barrymac]

Hi all,
I bought this award some years ago and have never seen another one like it.
I always wondered if it was real or a fake?
All help is greatly appreciated so i can either bin it or sell it
Many thanks as always
Is mise
Barry

[Barrymac]

Extra pictures

[Barrymac]

Another picture

[kaiserwilhelm2]

Hi, definitely not a regular award. Seems like somebody combined the wreath of a Prussian flight badge with a propellor. Both may be period pieces combined by some private individual. Not an expert on flight badges so let us see if someone can say something about the originality of both parts.

[Barrymac]

Thanks for the opinion KW2

[Hagrid]

Hi Barry!
A cast cut-out imperial german flyer-badge with a Meybauer-style (!) pin and makers mark - wrong from the beginning because Meybauer used a different bow-design. The wings riveted to the frame mimic the shoulderboard applications of the flying corps...
All together this should probably be the incarnation of a - very questionable anyway - prussian pilots commemorative badge (first type), as to be seen at
https://www.weitze.com/militaria/08/...n__139008.html

Not a keeper IMO...

Regards
Hagrid

[kaiserwilhelm2]

Hi Barry!
A cast cut-out imperial german flyer-badge with a Meybauer-style (!) pin and makers mark - wrong from the beginning because Meybauer used a different bow-design. The wings riveted to the frame mimic the shoulderboard applications of the flying corps...
All together this should probably be the incarnation of a - very questionable anyway - prussian pilots commemorative badge (first type), as to be seen at
https://www.weitze.com/militaria/08/...n__139008.html

Not a keeper IMO...

Regards
Hagrid

Hi Hagrid,

Interesting info. Are you saying that all Prussian commemorative badges are questionable incl the one at Weitze?

Cheers, W.I.R.

[Barrymac]

Hi Hagrid,

Many thanks for your wonderful feedback. It is much appreciated

Barry

[Hagrid]

Hi Hagrid,

Interesting info. Are you saying that all Prussian commemorative badges are questionable incl the one at Weitze?

Cheers, W.I.R.

Hi!
This style (with the wings) is supposed to be the "first type" of the badge - the other design ist the one we know and love: Eagle flying to the left over a landscape. (see attached pictures)

The only mentioning of this first type specimen can be read in the journal "Schwert und Spaten" of November 1941 - there are some examples around in different styles, including Weitzes (plus a lot of fakes...) - but no one ever has seen a picture of the badge in wear nor an estate grouping including an undisputed original.
The theory is that this early type did not find mercy in the emperors eyes and the few (test-)examples were never issued.

A lot room for speculation and money-wasting

Regards
Hagrid

[kaiserwilhelm2]

Hagrid, thanks for the additional info. Learned something new here. Thanks!

[Barrymac]

Hi guys.

Please find this interesting assessment of my badge from a collector of great expertise and a well known book on aviation awards of WW1

Hello Barry,

thank you for contacting me in this matter.

I have seen a lot of these so called “Fliegerdienst-Erinnerungsabzeichen“ or maybe translated “aviators commemorative badge” which was found in 1914 before the war but never issued. The first world war changed that into the later produced pilot’s commemorative badge which is common and well known badge.

Of course could this badge given to the German Kaiser as a sample when it was also printed into the “Armee-Verordnungsblatt” from 1914. So if this sample still exists it would look like an early silver pilots badge from Juncker, pierced out imperator crown, hollow plated and marked with the typical stampings. Later this badge wasn’t issued and produced but changed to the common pilot’s commemorative badge.

Your badge is from front view a Juncker wreath with a riveted shoulder board attachment for officers from aviation units and a complete pin back construction which is typical Meybauer style.

So that’s a typical “Frankenstein” put together from parts but nothing made in the time, ok still some wear and aging while its possible over years in a collection.

I hope this would help you on my personal point of view onto this badge.

[Hagrid]

(...)So that’s a typical “Frankenstein” put together from parts but nothing made in the time, ok still some wear and aging while its possible over years in a collection.

Hi Barry!
After seeing your ad on the e-stand, an outstanding example of true entrepreneurship probably based on a slight misunderstanding of the quoted expertise, I really have to push this point again:

Your badge is a welded-together piece of poorly made fake components, that only on first sight look like their original paragons!
A crude cast humbuggery to decieve the unaware, probably made in Poland from old plumbing pipes!

(I always thought the term “Frankenstein” classifies a mixture of original parts anyway...)

Regards
Hagrid

[Barrymac]

Thank you for your reply and opinion. It is greatly appreciated. I have zero knowledge of WW1 items hence posting on WAF.
Is mise
Barry