GAB opinions maker

[jager100]

Hi Guys,
Can I have your opinions regarding the maker of this unmarked GAB

Kind Regards

jager100

[Thomas Durante]

Hi Jager,


No problem with that one, an original Rudolf Karneth GAB, from Gablonz.


Great finish left too, very nice condition.



Tom

[jager100]

Hi Jager,


No problem with that one, an original Rudolf Karneth GAB, from Gablonz.


Great finish left too, very nice condition.



Tom

Cheers Tom, Many Thanks for taking time out

[Bruce Simcox]

Hi jager100

…...It is a good GAB. It is attributed to RK. No one can tell us at this time just which German manufacturer used the initials RK.

In the the KM badge world, there are "R.K." U-Boat and Minesweeper badges (and in other spheres there are also other R.K. marked products like the PAB, numbered GAB and RO/AG, not to mention metal breast and cap eagles, etc.), all showing typical features of Gablonz production.

For some time, collectors have jumped to the conclusion that the mysterious "R.K." was mostly likely the initials of "Rudolf A. Karneth & Sohn" whose Gablonz Metallwarenfabrik was assigned the Präsidialkanzlei Lieferant number 61. However, in more recent years the competing theory arose of "R.K" perhaps representing Robert Kreisel, another known Gablonz manufacturer with the same initials who was assigned the PK number 67.

But furthermore, given that there are no less than 9 sets of tooling for the R.K. Minesweeper badge, one also cannot rule out the possibility that the "R.K" mark appeared on products produced by a consortium, similar to the situation with "A.G.M.u.K." marked products.

Pavel Strej, who has done the most Gablonz-based research, has noted:

Quote:
Originally Posted by pavels_2005
I studied all the Karneth company documents that I have available, .... The documents don't show many war records. The records start mainly after the war when the Karneth factory was confiscated by the Czech state. But what I can definitely see there is, that Karneth supplied to AGMuk, to Heeresgruppe Mitte Liberec ( Reichenberg) and to Rüstungsinspektion Liberec (Reichenberg). He worked also a lot with Julius Pietsch (Gablonz) but this is not strange as they were neighbours - their factories were next door.

There is also a record that R. Kreisel was customer of Karneth. But this is no big surprise usually the Supplier/Customer lists of Gablonz companies show many other Gablonz names, as the cooperation between Gablonz companies was very common also in the in the times before war.
So that's where we stand today. There is no proof yet for the RK attribution to any one maker (as duly noted in the KM reference books in the context of the "RK" U-boat and Minesweeper badges), and it's even possible that RK-marked products were produced by a number of subcontracted firms.

Best regards,
---Norm

The above quote is from the following link:
http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...=905393&page=2

Nice GAB you have.