SS items I owned in the 1970s.....

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I prefer the chaos in your two options there I think, sometimes the promise of treasure is more delicious than the treasure itself. Maybe that is why we always seek the next item.

The archive job sounds incredible, I would work for free.

Thank you. I prefer the chaos, too, actually. Hence, the new rage for barn find automobiles with their patina? Patina and chaos have their merits, as they are history, too.

The archive job was very helpful to me as a young scholar. Such jobs are dying out today and the archive in question has been made into a joke by the transformation of things. It is a very sore point with me, but a part of the general dumbing down that is the order of the day. I guess everything now is in the cloud here, and you just type in the key word and out pops all of humankind, but that is really not the case.

PS the cap with the dirt on the cover illustrates patina.

[MD Helmets]

I prefer the chaos in your two options there I think, sometimes the promise of treasure is more delicious than the treasure itself. Maybe that is why we always seek the next item.

The archive job sounds incredible, I would work for free.

Such is the constant searching for new helmets. It's the thrill of the hunt that keeps us going, and the sharing of those new found items with friends

[Kevin Grootaers]

Very nice.

[jHAM]

Thank you F-B for sharing your hard earned perspective with the faceless, irrational and often hostile masses that inhabit this realm. Your influence and insistence on a scholarly attitude over collector lore and gun show gossip have inspired me to places and sources that I would have never known. We are all lucky you spend your time here teaching and lighting the path ahead.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Thank you F-B for sharing your hard earned perspective with the faceless, irrational and often hostile masses that inhabit this realm. Your influence and insistence on a scholarly attitude over collector lore and gun show gossip have inspired me to places and sources that I would have never known. We are all lucky you spend your time here teaching and lighting the path ahead.

Thanks, dear friend, and thanks for your support. I am grateful to you.

[BOB COLEMAN]

FB my friend. This thread reminds me of the days when it was not necessary to 50 close up pictures of cap details to tell if they were genuine or not. The old Beinhorn, Alteste and products of the costumer in Munich were very easy to spot.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

FB my friend. This thread reminds me of the days when it was not necessary to 50 close up pictures of cap details to tell if they were genuine or not. The old Beinhorn, Alteste and products of the costumer in Munich were very easy to spot.

How true. There were plenty of real things to be had and life was much simpler, far less of a puzzle palace and hall of mirrors as reigns today. And we were all much younger. And I surely took joy in the things I enclose here. All the same, collectors then were also seized of jealousy, and the collectors and the dealers were also quite capable of funny business, it is true. But it was all somehow modest and not taken very seriously by anyone. Nor was there the barrage of relics in an hourly, globalized relentless torrent of thingies as today, with the demand on one's character, intellect, and written word to keep up. I am not all sure that any merit adheres to the latter aspect, but Bob Coleman has been my example of balanced good humor in all of this.

[backtothefront]

Thanks FB for the personal story of your collecting and the insights you have learned and earned. The courteous and good humoured responses one receives on this site is testament to the standards set by Messrs Berthold, Coleman, Stevenson and so many others, whose patience must be tested at times. As many of us have benefitted from your advice (least of all regarding authenticity of a possible purchase), so many of us would be proud to own an item that was once in the collection of any of these gentlemen. Such provenance is rare. Regards Paul

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Thanks FB for the personal story of your collecting and the insights you have learned and earned. The courteous and good humoured responses one receives on this site is testament to the standards set by Messrs Berthold, Coleman, Stephenson and so many others, whose patience must be tested at times. As many of us have benefitted from your advice (least of all regarding authenticity of a possible purchase), so many of us would be proud to own an item that was once in the collection of any of these gentlemen. Such provenance is rare. Regards Paul

thanks to you and we look forward to your acquisition of our old junk as the new wave of collectors.