EK1 vaulting, good or bad?

[avenger]

Were most EK1's that are vaulted done by a factory, or were they done by the recipient, or even by hand by an owner in the last 70 years? Is there a way to tell the difference between a factory done vaulting vs. a hand done vaulting?

Also, is there a known list of makers that were known to factory vault crosses?

Thanks everyone for any clarification on this! It seems like if the simple act of bending the cross arms could up the value, a person could expect a lot of post war vaulting on crosses out there. I have a MM6 cross that I just received and that I'll be posting when I get a chance to take photos that turned out to be vaulted, and I'm not sure how I should interpret this surprise feature.

[avenger]

Here's my new EK1 that is slightly vaulted. I'm trying to tell what the significance of this is. Thanks everyone!

[Hank C.]

That's a great looking Fritz Zimmerman EK1.

The significance (as far as I know), is that when vaulted, they sit on the uniform a bit better. They sort of...."grip it" so to speak, instead of sticking out.

all the best
Hank

[avenger]

Thanks for the info Hank! That makes sense, how it would fit the tunic better.

Is there any reason to question when an EK was vaulted, i.e. if it were period done, or any way to know? Or, is it fairly safe to assume most EK's that are vaulted were done so in the period and not post war?

[mwl]

A very nice attractive cross, indeed

[sanya13]

this is a very nice piece and in good condition

[Eklipse]

Your iron cross seems nicely hand vaulted. Only very early pieces was factory vaulted (the whole cross is convex, so the four sides are curved) , later it was forbidden to the makers... but to hand vault remained as a common practice. In my opinion, hand vaulting if properly done does not add o retract value to the piece (sometimes it's more nice), but improperly done can devalue it.

[avenger]

Thanks, guys. I really appreciate the feedback.

Sounds like there's little incentive for someone to vault EK's postwar if it's not something that drives up the vaule, especially if they can be damaged by it, so I guess it's a lot more likely the recipient vaulted this one so this EK would fit his uniform better (or maybe he just liked the trend). I certainly learn more with every piece I get! And there's still a lot more to learn left.

[Douglas 5]

Yes that cross is hand vaulted . One can see the seams starting to spit in places .
On hand vaulted pieces the inside corners start to lift away from the core .

Douglas

[avenger]

Yes that cross is hand vaulted . One can see the seams starting to spit in places .
On hand vaulted pieces the inside corners start to lift away from the core.

Douglas

This seemed like a good opportunity to use my cheap digital microscope to see what we can find out about those areas.

Here's a couple of photos of the areas you mentioned. I looked for the worst looking seam, and under magnification it doesn't appear to be separated as much as it has been discolored. They may still in fact be separated there, but there doesn't appear to be a gap at least.

The 4 corners of the frame look to be laying flat on the core still. Whoever vaulted it, looks to have been very careful about it.

Anyway, thought this might be of some interest.

[Douglas 5]

Thanks good pictures - very minor plain hand vaulting with seams not breaking open .

Hand vaulting to any degree shows up like on this one below .

Douglas

[Douglas 5]

Factory vaulting in one or both axis .

Douglas

[TRAVLRSEASIA]

Ek1mm 6

You have a beautiful MM6 Ek1..lovely core and frosting to the beading!..But the cross is hand vaulted as has been explained by previous respondants. You can see that the seam of the frame has become slightly exposed due to the hand vaulting by the recipient. Douglas' quotation from David M's notation several years ago seems to answer most of your queries. From my understanding, few makers from the TR period offered to vault crosses upon private order and no awarded crosses were issued vaulted during the conflict.

I can state however that I have seen LDO made crosses from Juncker, Deumer, Alois Rittemaier that were clearly factory vaulted during the war so the rules were "bent" to accommodate on occasion..

[avenger]

Thanks Travlrseasia! Yes, that information from Douglas spells out in official terms most of what I was wondering. I can say the vault looks really attractive on my EK in person. And, so long as it's unlikely some collector would have bothered/risked to vault it post war, I can live with the recipients choice.

Having a nicely vaulted and awarded EK (compared to an LDO private purchase) probably tells us something about how much the original owner was proud of his distinction as an EK1 recipient.

Thanks again Douglas for posting that information. That's really helpful.

[mwl]

I learn someting new every day, thanks guys