If you are still with me, this last picture of one of the tunic crosses was taken with my old camera and is pretty lousy, but it is the only straight-on view I have.
Will take a look at the tabs on yours. The red line is the way your bullion runs and the black line is how it should run. There are some big problems with this tunic.
Here are the things that stand out to me someone please correct me if I am wrong
1. Boards post war attached
2. Tabs post war attached and fake
3. Bird post war attached and fake (maybe). Look at the single thread accents and peg legs, those are signs of a Pakistani repro (I may be wrong on this one)
4. Tank destruction badge I don’t know if they are fake but they do look post war added
5. Award loops I can almost guarantee are post war added. The ones I see are sloppy and this tunic is just way overkill with awards. Two-tank destruction, German gross, Close combat then three more pocket medals.
I would not trust anything on it. It has been heavily messed with. .
Yes, I was just replying back to another member who said he also got burned in the same fashion by lawrence. I always held back posting this tunic since I heard bad things about him long after he closed his shop and always wondered, even though I liked the tunic. Now I know they were true. P*ss off Brian, wherever you may be, I heard you injured your leg when one of your motorcycles fell on top of you. Merry Christmas and I hope it still hurts.
BTW after consideration I will be removing the TDB's and putting them behing glass for preservation. They at least are genuine and have no connections to Lawrence.
If you would like some scans of them Nick, I would be glad to send you them later on. In the meantime:
Will all is not lost. It is still a nice tunic. I would have the boards re-set in a little better, have some nice tabs professionally reattached, double check that bird and maybe tone down the award loops a bit. I think the CCC and German cross might be a bit of overkill. It looks from the other thread that the tank destruction’s are good. She can be saved.
Thanks Nick. I will get back to you with the scans of the TDB's. I bought those from a small time antique dealer I once met almost 25 years ago. She was a very pleasant person but on reflection I do not think she would have known a Knight's Cross from War Merit cross 2nd class. Not her area of expertise I imagine.
When I asked if she had anything German? she pulled out a small tin box and let me rummage though it. Lots of ribbons, tinnies, BWB's etc. Nothing exciting. She wanted $160 each for two average condition silver IAB's which I passed on, (extremely overpriced at that time, I guess because they had swastikas ??) But then, at the bottom, I found two TDB's secured back to back with a rubber band!
I had no reference material on such items at the time, had never even seen one before for that matter, but as they seemed to be mde of quality I asked her how much she wanted for them. She said $60 for the pair!
I casually squeaked out my interest and would she hold them for me. I came back first thing next morning to the shopping mall where several antique dealers were set up and gladly paid her. They have been mine ever since.
As for the tunic...
If the tunic itself is good, perhaps I will do what you suggested and make a project of it. If I can find some good officer collar tabs and shoulder boards (Panzer maybe? ) and can find someone with experience who can apply them for me, maybe I will go that route, I don't know just now.
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