Is this mint or what ???

[Br. James]

As I said in my note #14 below, breaking out the number of recipients by date based upon Patzwall's book on the AH Honorary GPB would be a job for a rainy day...but I do think it would be welcome information to add to that fine research volume.

Br. James

[JoeW]

I have always believed the cases, with the Wehrmacht eagle, were for awards to the field marshals that AH felt were worthy. I have not seen many original cases, but the Wehrmacht eagle leads me to believe the connection to field marshals.

The Von Brauchitsch set is mine and has been in my collection for over 3 decades. I allowed Craig to use photos. The offers I have received far exceed the opening price for the emedals set by more than double.

Bob Hritz

Bob, did you acquire the set from Glen Browning who was credited on the photos in Jack's FuF. Did he acquire them from the family? Was there an award document with them?

[Bob Hritz]

Bob, did you acquire the set from Glen Browning who was credited on the photos in Jack's FuF. Did he acquire them from the family? Was there an award document with them?

Hello Joe,

It is the set Glen used to own. I bought it through an intermediary. I was given no information about its past history. I do not personally know Glen. There is no document of award that came to me with the set.

Bob Hritz

[der-hase-fee]

And Patzwall shows the case for the badges presented to Vizeadmiral a.D. von Trotha and although the eagle is more elaborate, it is the same design as your case. He also shows two other examples, one with a darker color leather (brown as described) and a red case with a pair of 1943 A.H. badges, the larger of them engraved like mine.

Correct, 3 cases are pictured in Patzwall's book:

Page 36, brown leatherette 6.5 x 9cm, eagle facing right;
Page 39, red with red insert 6 x 8.5cm, elaborate eagle facing left (v. Trotha's);
Page 42, red leather with beige insert 6.5 x 10.5cm, eagle facing right (which I by mistake attributed to Schörner, but the badges are show on page 43 and are of the civilian kind, i.e. both have the horizontal pin; further both have the initials below the date.)

[JoeW]

Correct, 3 cases are pictured in Patzwall's book:

Page 36, brown leatherette 6.5 x 9cm, eagle facing right;
Page 39, red with red insert 6 x 8.5cm, elaborate eagle facing left (v. Trotha's);
Page 42, red leather with beige insert 6.5 x 10.5cm, eagle facing right (which I by mistake attributed to Schörner, but the badges are show on page 43 and are of the civilian kind, i.e. both have the horizontal pin; further both have the initials below the date.)

Interesting observation about the eagle head direction Andreas. I had not noticed it. I wonder if it is related to the re-direction of the party eagle's head to contrast to the military, which might indicate that these cases were indeed of universal design for presentation to civilian and military awardees. The eagle is identical to the Reichskanzlei eagles I believe? The cases with eagles are scarce, but I don't recall ever seeing a case without an eagle.

Is the term "civilian kind" a bit of a misnomer? I mean has anyone seen a photo of a civilian wearing a large GPB on a civilian jacket or dress? Was there a regulation specifying the thick straight pin variety to be affixed to a party or military jacket? I have never read of it.

[der-hase-fee]

Is the term "civilian kind" a bit of a misnomer? I mean has anyone seen a photo of a civilian wearing a large GPB on a civilian jacket or dress? Was there a regulation specifying the thick straight pin variety to be affixed to a party or military jacket? I have never read of it.

"Civilian style" in contrast to the "military style", which refers to the vertical pin, Joe.

"Civilian" would therefore refer to everything non military, including all NSDAP organizations, police, fire fighters, etc.

I am not aware of any regulations either, I have just (ab-)used the collector's terminology. Not sure exactly why "military style" in the first place: Certainly the vertical pin badges were not exclusively awarded to Wehrmacht soldiers, as there is a large GPB with military style pin awarded to a woman, for example ...

[JoeW]

I understand now Andreas. The terms differentiate the style of pins rather than the occupation of the recipients. Don't know who created the terminology. Perhaps Littlejohn or perhaps Angolia because they didn't know any better.

But seeing in the above post the 24mm with Bormann's #60508, brought to mind a seven page article written and sent to me some years ago by a French collector/friend named Alain Taugourdeau. Alas, I don't have the magazine title or precise date but it was late 1990s or early 2000s. Alain discusses both the regular GPB, their sizes, requirements and types, as well as the A.H. version. And the article was printed in color. Perhaps one of our French collecting comrades knows of the magazine title and date of publication. Anyway, Alain found a 30mm example of the Bormann #60508 and provided a photo, though somewhat dark.

[Br. James]

Interesting comments on the direction of the eagle's head, which I've raised previously. As I understand it, the only Political (cap) eagle that had it's head looking to it's right was the M-1936 design; on all the other designs -- M-27, M-34 and M-39 -- the eagle looks to it's left. Perhaps that information would be helpful in identifying when a particular itui bearing the eagle design was used? If so, it would have had to have been made between 1936 and 1938.

While the use of the term "military pin" has long referred to the thick hinged upright pin assembly found on some large GPBs and many other awards and decorations, I have never associated that with the use that size GPB was intended for. Since other decorations have long used that design pin for wear on uniforms, that is the way I have considered it's intention to be. The fact that some large GPBs are found with a "safety pin" on their reverse, as all of the small GPBs are (except those adapted for lapel studs or stickpins), it has only made sense to me that the large badge -- no matter which kind of pin assembly is found on it -- was created for uniform wear, just as the small badge was created for wear on civilian clothing.

One further thought on this might be that the large GPBs bearing the "safety pin" might have been the original design, while those with the "military pin" might be from later years of the award. The difficulty in discerning this would be due to the fact that additional, replacement or duplicate badges of either size and of either pin assembly could have been ordered and provided throughout the years, so that a GPB with a relatively low number but with a "military pin" might be a duplicate or a replacement example ordered later...??

Interesting subject!! Cheers,

Br. James

[JoeW]

For those of you who have the Patzwall's publication on the Ehrenhalber Golden Party Badge and looked up the award dates for Gen. v. Brauchitsch and Gen. Keitel in his alpha listing at the end of his book, please be award that Patzwall erred in his data transferal from the German archives to his work. Whereas he lists Keitel as having received his A.H. badge on 03.02.1939, the original documentation lists Keitel as having received his badge on 20.03.1939. This is the same day as listed for v. Brauchitsch. Patzwall picked up the presentation date for the member immediately before Keitel, a Dr. Rich. Möckel, and in turn listed as Mõckel's presentation date, the date of the person immediatly before him in the list. Of course, this throws open the possibility of other errors in Patzwall's "master list".

[Br. James]

Thanks, Joe -- VERY helpful!

Br. James

[der-hase-fee]

Seems pretty reasonably priced for award to a diamonds holder. I do not think this will last very long.

Bob Hritz

Priced at $42,000 now !?

[Jo Rivett]

Priced at $42,000 now !?

Because of the hype, he always does it, only this time he will sit on his re-issued, re-worked (tampered with) set until the cows come home.
TM is still sitting on their set, thats 17 000 dollars cheaper
(it is also a much more "believable set", especially the case.)

Make of it what you will, either way, the large GPB has been tampered with.
Deschler could have used old stock, could have used a reclaimed badge, could have been done period, could also have been done post war, could also have been done by a dealer who wanted to match a set. Could have been done by me.

We will leave this up to the future owner to decide what he wishes to believe, and whether he is happy with the version of "could" he spunks out 42 Large on.

[JoeW]

Interesting observation about the eagle head direction Andreas. I had not noticed it. I wonder if it is related to the re-direction of the party eagle's head to contrast to the military, which might indicate that these cases were indeed of universal design for presentation to civilian and military awardees. The eagle is identical to the Reichskanzlei eagles I believe? The cases with eagles are scarce, but I don't recall ever seeing a case without an eagle.

Is the term "civilian kind" a bit of a misnomer? I mean has anyone seen a photo of a civilian wearing a large GPB on a civilian jacket or dress? Was there a regulation specifying the thick straight pin variety to be affixed to a party or military jacket? I have never read of it.

The question of the eagle on the AH GPB cases and whether such cases are to be associated with military presentations still remains unsettled I believe. There are a number of various eagle designs used on military, state and party material. I thought the eagle on the AH case was similar to the Reichskanzlei eagles. But looking through the material shown on the History Hunter site, I found this book on Mussolini's visit to Germany in 1937 described as being presented to Göring. What is interesting is the eagle design on the cover of the book.


It seems to be the same design as the eagle on the AH badge case seen in this close up.



The site describes it as the design of Frau Frieda Tiersch. According to on line info, she work with Gerdi Troost. Perhaps these were the designers of the AH GPB case as well as the RK Mappe and other examples displaying this eagle? And it seems that the AH GPB case eagle design was not confined only to miltiary useage.

[der-hase-fee]

Priced at $42,000 now !?

And now sold !?!