Question about photo albums

[J L Moe]

Hello,

I am helping a friend who is cataloging books and items belonging to an elderly couple. I am trying to find info and value for several items, including quite a few photo albums. Did the German army issue photo albums to soldiers? There are a few albums with pre-printed pages in the beginning, with black pages for photos after that.

What determines the value of albums? Is a complete, or nearly complete album more valuable than the individual photos?

If they decide to sell the albums, what information would a buyer expect to see?

I appreciate any information or suggestions.

[kaiserwilhelm2]

Did the German army issue photo albums to soldiers?

What determines the value of albums? Is a complete, or nearly complete album more valuable than the individual photos?

If they decide to sell the albums, what information would a buyer expect to see?

Value is decided by various factors for example:

- is the individual soldier highly decorated or high ranking and therefore known?
- did the soldier serve with an elite unit?
- is the album scripted?
- does the album contain unique pictures?
- the quantity and quality of the pictures

Depending on such factors an album's value is anything between 10 euro and several thousands of euro. In some cases individual photo's are worth more than an album.

Without specific info of what you are selling it is impossible to determine the value.

[J L Moe]

Value is decided by various factors for example:

- is the individual soldier highly decorated or high ranking and therefore known?
- did the soldier serve with an elite unit?
- is the album scripted?
- does the album contain unique pictures?
- the quantity and quality of the pictures

Depending on such factors an album's value is anything between 10 euro and several thousands of euro. In some cases individual photo's are worth more than an album.

Without specific info of what you are selling it is impossible to determine the value.

Thank you for your response.

Right now I am just helping catalog the images and trying to find values -- that will determine whether or not these photo albums will be sold.

I am currently working on translations of the picture captions for one of the albums, so I'll use it as an example.

There is an embossed SS insignia on the cover, as well as the following:

Zur Erinnerung an meine Dienstzeit
bei der
Leibstandarte „Adolf Hitler"

I haven't seen an owner's name, but I'll check the next time I see the album.

I've gone through 34 pages of photos so far. The images appear to be a mixture of professional photos, postcards and personal photographs.

The first page has two pictures of Hitler, written under them is 1933 bis 1945

Some of the people and places identified in the photographs that I've examined so far are:

Adolf Hitler (several appear to be candid shots).
Sepp Dietrich.
Nuremburg in 1935
R.F. S.S. Himmler
Königsbrück
Munich in 1935
The body of Paul von Hindenburg, lying in state.
Berchtesgaden
Dr. Goebels
1936 Olympics
Rud. Hess
Invasion of Czechoslovakia 1938.
Herm. Goring & Zupp Goebels
Hitler and Kriegsmar. Reder
Adju. Collani
Poland.

I do have scans of the photos - but I had to use a portable scanner so they aren't the best quality.

Some of the photos have gone yellow, others are in very good condition.

What would be helpful to me is to know which people and locations are considered rare.

Thanks again for any info you can give me.

[kaiserwilhelm2]

Early SS is of course rare but whether or not is big bucks really depends on the photographs themselves and whether the photoalbum tells a story revolving around the - preferably identifiable - owner. Hard to tell just on the basis of a description.

[juoneen]

Original albums usually have writing on the backs of each photo, watermarks from where it was developed, or from the film type used. Also a spider web type "spider and fly" pressed non stick divider page to protect photos, between every two pages. And yes there were some available for purchase grade albums for service , like they had back in the days when people added their own photos to albums using the lick and stick black corners so any size photos could be added wherever they pleased to be placed.

[J L Moe]

Original albums usually have writing on the backs of each photo, watermarks from where it was developed, or from the film type used. Also a spider web type "spider and fly" pressed non stick divider page to protect photos, between every two pages. And yes there were some available for purchase grade albums for service , like they had back in the days when people added their own photos to albums using the lick and stick black corners so any size photos could be added wherever they pleased to be placed.

Well these definitely have the spider web divider pages. I haven't tried to remove any of the photos for fear of damaging them, so am not sure if they have writing on the back.

Here are examples from the album I'm currently documenting.

[kaiserwilhelm2]

Those look of course interesting but it might be that those pics are purchased ones. At big events photographers were present and you could order pics you liked of the event. I am not saying that these are such but they might be as close up pics of Hitler and in his office are rarely made by non-professionals. But I will let others comment who might be more familiar with these sorts of pics. I am a military pic collector.

[portraithunter]

Hello

The copy on the scans looks to me already look pretty professional.
The motive of Sepp Dietrich in the grass I would be so is not known, but such a picture without this subtitle, I would probably overlook. The photo of Hitler's work room appears to me to be the remains of white photo corners that have been removed. At the lower edge stands out even one! Albums that have been tinkered wilkrlich together should be worth something deeper than a full album is not affected by the extent consistent throughout the whole story. How KaiserWilhelm2 already said the price differences can be enormous, and are only noticeable when you see everything, and this case also prefer to take a closer look.

Well these definitely have the spider web divider pages. I haven't tried to remove any of the photos for fear of damaging them, so am not sure if they have writing on the back.

Here are examples from the album I'm currently documenting.

[J L Moe]

Thank you all for your assessments.

I think that some of the photographs have been re-mounted in the book when the original adhesive came loose - the images do appear to match the captions, and the handwriting is consistent on all the pages.

I also think that some of the images, like the one of Hitler's study, were either purchased or issued to the soldiers, as they look like professional shots, but there are others that are definitely candid.

It has been very helpful to know what collectors look for regarding photographs, and any suggestions on what to look for as I document the photographs in the other albums would be appreciated.