Review: Speaking tube / voice tube supposedly from destroyer Z17 "Diether von Roeder"

[leproc]

Hello! I would like the forum to please take a look at this: a speaking tube (actually translated as voice tube) supposedly from Z17 "Diether von Roeder." According to the seller, this was taken from an old collection, though he didn't specify anything else besides that.

Z17 herself was deployed to Narvik and actually scuttled after a battle against the British: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German...her_von_Roeder

I'll post the pictures in the next posts because they're quite large.

Personally, I would be elated if this was authentic since Kriegsmarine destroyer artifacts are pretty rare to come buy, in my opinion. However, I'm a bit suspicious that this could be a fake because of the modern-looking engravings.

Of course, I'm not the expert and I would appreciate more learned forum-goers to examine it and determine its potential authenticity.

I don't know if Z17 would count as a well-known ship since she wasn't a capital ship and merely one of many destroyers in the Kriegsmarine during the war, so there might not be profit in forging an artifact from her. Of course, they do that commonly with random U-boats, so go figure...

Thanks!

[leproc]

[leproc]

[leproc]

[glaser]

I don't like both engravings, sorry

[leproc]

I don't like both engravings, sorry

I had my suspicions, which is why I asked the forum first. It reminds me of those “real” knives that pop up from Russia and Poland every so often.

Quick question though: what would an authentic engraving look like for an object like this? This initially caught my eye because Kriegsmarine destroyers don’t seem to have a lot for them. They’re not as prized at the bigger German shops.

I’m in contact with the buyer who vaguely said he got this from a collection 40 years ago. That could explain the modern-ish engraving (the ship was scuttled after all, so there was time to pull goodies off of her before the war ended). However, that’s really dependent on documentation, which he doesn’t seem to have, or his word, which is cheap.

Anyways, thanks!

[leproc]

I got some more information from the seller. The last name of the family that sold the seller the piece was named Kramer from the city of Hamm. The son was apparently liquidating a father’s collection.

I don’t know if that helps anything. Could it be that the engravings were not official and added like trench art to the piece?

[glaser]

I got some more information from the seller. The last name of the family that sold the seller the piece was named Kramer from the city of Hamm. The son was apparently liquidating a father’s collection.

I don’t know if that helps anything. Could it be that the engravings were not official and added like trench art to the piece?

That is a possibility, but IMHO if this should have been done during the war and in rememberence, I would expect only to see the name of the ship added and not the eagle over M which looks typically like an postwar upgrade made for collectors of KM

[leproc]

That is a possibility, but IMHO if this should have been done during the war and in rememberence, I would expect only to see the name of the ship added and not the eagle over M which looks typically like an postwar upgrade made for collectors of KM

Yeah. It does look like those Polish U-boat stuff that is usually fodder.

However, the seller told me that the father of the person he bought the items (the father was apparently a big collector) from was formerly in the German army during WW2, so maybe that could explain the eagle.

Apparently the seller is still doing business with the father’s son, so I’m hoping to get a note or some sort of documentation to connect the item with the father’s collection.

I usually don’t collect these sorts of things, but I do have a part from one of the English destroyers destroyed at Dunkirk that has lots of paperwork backing up its legitimate nature. I have a little bit of faith (kinda) because Z17 isn’t a famous destroyer, so I’m hoping it’s a post-war craving for this item.

I’m just being skeptical because the seller wants about $200 for this piece. It’s long and solid metal, but I don’t want to be paying for debris marked with a ship name instead of the real deal.

[leproc]

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