HJ Cholm Veteran

[Robin Lumsden]

A survivor of Cholm - in his HJ Leader's uniform.

[Rick Research]

.

[Grant Broadhurst]

Hello Robin ,

I have this man on a postcard , exactly the same image , i have tested the photo paper and it,s wartime and i,ve seen it for sale on Ebay , why is there more than one ?

Regards

Grant

[Grant Broadhurst]

Also he is wearing a party badge , iron cross 2nd class ribbon , iron cross 1st class and what looks like a legion condor wound badge !

[Robin Lumsden]

Hello Robin ,

I have this man on a postcard , exactly the same image , i have tested the photo paper and it,s wartime and i,ve seen it for sale on Ebay , why is there more than one ?

Regards

Grant

I've often seen original postcards with the same image at different places. Another is the one below. I've seen this at 3 different militaria fairs, and each time the picture has been an 'original' postcard. They must have 'mass produced' them for some reason.

[Grant Broadhurst]

Maybe the person in the picture had more than one done for wives, girlfriends , mothers and other family ?

Thanks

Grant

[Edward]

Hello Grant,

This is off forum topic, but I will try to pass on what I know of these two particular photos and something of the history behind them. Imo these are post-war copies. If I recall correctly these two particular examples first surfaced on the market at least 10+ years ago. They were offered on auction sites such as Manion's ect... A large number of studio picture postcard reproductions started coming out on the market around 15 years ago and were sold in large numbers through auction catalogs, dealers, and at the militaria shows. They were not advertised as post war. They come in a varieity of themes...almost all showing something highly scarce or desirable. For example, the first such post-war copy I found for sale was one of a studio postcard showing a Gebirgs NCO sitting on a stool with the Kreta cufftitle on his tunic...since that time I have seen at least 5 of the same studio postcard offered on the market. The lengths that some of these individuals went to fool collectors is also interesting. Many such types are toned to give them an aged quality...paper manufacturer on the back such as Afga ect...and even some with a studio stamp on the back! More recently one can find post war copies that were made for missing veterans for some organization or other...of course the content of such copies just happens to be sale showing something yet again desirable or scarce.

Regards

[Grant Broadhurst]

Hello Edward,

Very interesting , how many of the cholm shield wearer have you seen for sale , i,ve only seen 2 . The back of mine has no company names on it and has been black light tested .

Regards

Grant

[Edward]

Hello Edward,

Very interesting , how many of the cholm shield wearer have you seen for sale , i,ve only seen 2 . The back of mine has no company names on it and has been black light tested .

Regards

Grant

Hello Grant,

I have seen at least 3 of the HJ leader with Cholm Shield. Two sold by Manion's and one from a dealer. Does the back of the studio card have black printed lines for a message and a small black block in the upper right hand corner for a stamp? Many of such copies have this set up on the reverse. Some are aged by a spotting technique which leaves brown like speckles on the reverse to make the postcard look old. The mass of earlier copies previously mentioned were told to me to have originated out of Austria. Interesting that it passed the black light test, but knowing there provenance I would not buy any of these photos regardless, and consider them not pre 1945.

Consideration must be given to the possibility that someone has the original negatives of the studio postcards and used them for not good purposes. Interestingly enough back in the 80's a German dealer offered me approximately 200 studio negatives which I did not purchase. The dealer did give me one studio postcard sized negative to spark my interest. It is of a seated officer. So it makes me wonder what happend to the 200 negatives...

Regards

[Grant Broadhurst]

Hello Edward,

My card doesn't have the black lines , place for the stamp or the brown speckles , 200 negatives hhmhhmmmm a lot of photos !

[Mark S.]

Going off the notion that there are so many of these portraits that have rare insignia, what are the chances that they are also post war posed with made up uniforms?

It is one thing to have old negatives, but it is quite another when these old negs are also rare uniforms and badges, or mixtures there of.

I dont suppose that 40-50 year old film would be any good, but what is the life span of old film and/or paper? Could someone have made these up using old stocks of paper? That would explain them passing the black light test.

I remember a while back there was a bunch of faked portrait photos that all that familar column in the background. How do those pictures compare to these?

[Gaspare]

These don't look like staged photos.They look like the typical posed studio photos . The 'column' photos were reproduced but not staged..Just think these are all from glass negatives reproduced ..All original taken photos but just developed recently [post war].. , G.

[Edward]

These don't look like staged photos.They look like the typical posed studio photos . The 'column' photos were reproduced but not staged..Just think these are all from glass negatives reproduced ..All original taken photos but just developed recently [post war].. , G.

Hello Mark & Gaspare,

These are post-war copies taken more than likely from the original negatives. Actually I would not neccesarily say that they were taken from glass negatives, but could very well have come from individual postcard size or slightly larger cello portrait negatives. Each master negative was then kept by the studio in a brown paper thin envelope. It is a shame that these studio postcards still keep showing up without being labled as post war. Some years ago at the Max Show I saw one dealer with a large thick album slotted with what was probably the entire run of these repros...it makes one wonder how many have been ripped off by such scams.

Regards

[Don Scowen]

Hello Grant,

I have seen at least 3 of the HJ leader with Cholm Shield. Two sold by Manion's and one from a dealer. Does the back of the studio card have black printed lines for a message and a small black block in the upper right hand corner for a stamp? Many of such copies have this set up on the reverse. Some are aged by a spotting technique which leaves brown like speckles on the reverse to make the postcard look old. The mass of earlier copies previously mentioned were told to me to have originated out of Austria. Interesting that it passed the black light test, but knowing there provenance I would not buy any of these photos regardless, and consider them not pre 1945.

Consideration must be given to the possibility that someone has the original negatives of the studio postcards and used them for not good purposes. Interestingly enough back in the 80's a German dealer offered me approximately 200 studio negatives which I did not purchase. The dealer did give me one studio postcard sized negative to spark my interest. It is of a seated officer. So it makes me wonder what happend to the 200 negatives...

Regards

I recently bought a small group of pictures. The H.J. one was amongst them, it looked & felt different to the others, & when tested with the black light it was obvious why.

It was returned to the seller for a full refund (which was granted).

Here's a pic of it I took under black light, it shone like a beacon.

Cheers
Don

[Grant Broadhurst]

Hello Don ,

My H.J. card has the same " wavey " edge to it but it has no Markings or lines or speckles on the back and it does not glow at all under black light , what did yours have on the back ?


Regards

Grant