REAL L/12 Oaks!

[Marc Garlasco]

HUGE Kudos to Dietrich for his article on the Dickfeld Oaks in the latest IMC! WOW! Nice job putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. I was very into the article, really eating it up, until I turned to the last page. BAM!!!! The Dietl Oaks was the cherry on top! HOLY CRAP that really nailed it for me!

I know it is a magazine trying to turn a profit, but I hope he will share some of the information here as well.

[Dietrich Maerz]

I have no problem at all sharing the info with my collector friends here. However, I will not go into the detail of the finding but rather the meat of it.

It was always clear that there are some wartime oaks made by Juncker and also S&L and maybe others out there. The question was (and for some maker like S&L still is): which one is the real set. That whole issue was not made easier by the fact that Mr. Niemann showed at least 3 different types in his sales catalog giving the impression that everything in oaks form with an L/12 stamp or even L 12 stamp is the real deal. He did not shy back to back this surely unfounded proposition up with his lifetime warranties (which have no all expired ...).

The result of the flood was very logic - serious collectors didn't believe in any oaks outside of the Godets.

But time, luck and help from a lot of collectors normally allows to puzzle the real piece together and present a case which is based on facts not an "I say so!". The chain of evidence in this case in short:

- an awarded L/12 oaks set that has a closed soldered loop and is therefore fixed to a genuine Juncker
- the set is marked L/12 and 900
- the set can be verified by photographic and contemporary evidence
- the set uses a "900" stamp which is identical to a "900" stamp on a genuine Juncker RK
- the set has a fingerprint which can be seen at a contemporary picture from the Uniformen-Markt

meanwhile another set of L/12 900 was brought to my attention (awarded posthumously) which is absolutely identical. I am 99% convinced that this is the real Juncker oakleaves. I am also convinced that Juncker had NOT four or five dies ....