I was hoping someone would be able to help me identify the following boxes. I went to visit my family in Germany and they had been cleaning out the old farm house of one of the family members who has recently been placed in a retirement home because she was unable to care for herself. She will be celebrating her 87th birthday in August. We have had many conversations about the war and families German side experiences. There were 5 boxes on a "fire" pile in the middle of the yard with a bunch of other junk. They are planning to have a bond fire for her birthday. After some initial investigation, I asked if I coulsd have them. Several of the boxes were too far gone to save but I did manage to save 2 and the hardware from another 3 including bolts for handles, metal insert, screws, rivots, etc. Thay are all rusty but functioning.
They appear to be pine boxes with a metal box insert. They say the following on the outside top of the box "Oben Nitch werfen! Luftdicht verpackt" and on the inside there were paper labels on the lid that had a date of 1918. There were a couple that were in good shape and the one that was pretty moldy. One read:
- Top Right conrner "Lfg. 32"
- Middle / Middle "25"
next line "Granatzunder 17."
next line "(Luftdicht verpackt)"
- Bottom "????stl. Lippische Staatswerkst????n A.-G., Detmold, den 11. Dez. 1918"
Any advice with these would be great. I was thinking about making reproduction boxes using the hardware for the 3 boxes I couldn't salvage. Any recommendations on whether I should remove rust via vibrator / sand blaster and have them powder coated or painted. Thoughts?
I was able to get some tinnies and other WWII items like belts and buckles, bayonet, etc from her brother who served in the war, and various cigarette cards from the late '20s and early '30s.
They appear to be pine boxes with a metal box insert. They say the following on the outside top of the box "Oben Nitch werfen! Luftdicht verpackt" and on the inside there were paper labels on the lid that had a date of 1918. There were a couple that were in good shape and the one that was pretty moldy. One read:
- Top Right conrner "Lfg. 32"
- Middle / Middle "25"
next line "Granatzunder 17."
next line "(Luftdicht verpackt)"
- Bottom "????stl. Lippische Staatswerkst????n A.-G., Detmold, den 11. Dez. 1918"
Any advice with these would be great. I was thinking about making reproduction boxes using the hardware for the 3 boxes I couldn't salvage. Any recommendations on whether I should remove rust via vibrator / sand blaster and have them powder coated or painted. Thoughts?
I was able to get some tinnies and other WWII items like belts and buckles, bayonet, etc from her brother who served in the war, and various cigarette cards from the late '20s and early '30s.