Interesting variant Imperial Buckle

[Lenny Warren]

Hi guys,

Just got this one in, nickle plated brass with nickel silver roundel. The rear is marked...

D. R. GEBRAUCHS MUSTERSCHUTZ No. 27448

I've seen this mark before, patent number etc. but on a traditional brass/nickle 2 piece also with distinctive fixing with folded over tabs rather than solder.

Any thoughts??? I've got another Imperial nickle plated buckle and that was meant to be field police.

[Lenny Warren]

Here's the type I've seen before... Notice this one has long ears like a Saxon. Pic borrowed from WAF with apologies to original owner.

[Ben Evans]

Very interesting and nicely marked buckle Lenny, could the roundel have been resoldered on the box at some point?

[Lenny Warren]

Very interesting and nicely marked buckle Lenny, could the roundel have been resoldered on the box at some point?

That's my feeling, I can only find this buckle online with the tabs, and actually very few of them. I'm wondering if it was an unsuccessful production method which is why we don't see anymore of them. I can't imagine the roundel would be very secure with just bent back tabs. Maybe that's why this one is soldered?

Current consensus that nickle/nickle buckles were field police?

[Kurt D]

Hi Lenny

The brass buckle in your second post is mine, and I have no problems with your showing it here. On the subject of the nickle-plated buckles as such, they can't be military police. The military police wore standard army buckles (brass with nickle roundel). At one time I thought the nickle version could be for the Prussian Gendarmerie, but I have since confirmed that these guys, who were materially police but counted as combatants and as such were attached to the army, also had the standard army buckle. The totally silver buckle is shown in period regulations for the professional fire brigade of the city of Berlin. There are too many of these buckles around for me to believe that they are all of the Berlin fire brigade. Possibly, other municipal Prussian brigades also adopted this pattern. Your buckle may have had the roundel resoldered at some time. Hard to tell from pics.

Kind regards
Kurt

[Lenny Warren]

Many thanks Kurt, appreciated.

Interesting that your buckle has the long ears, similar to some Saxon buckles. Any thoughts on that?

Hi Lenny

The brass buckle in your second post is mine, and I have no problems with your showing it here. On the subject of the nickle-plated buckles as such, they can't be military police. The military police wore standard army buckles (brass with nickle roundel). At one time I thought the nickle version could be for the Prussian Gendarmerie, but I have since confirmed that these guys, who were materially police but counted as combatants and as such were attached to the army, also had the standard army buckle. The totally silver buckle is shown in period regulations for the professional fire brigade of the city of Berlin. There are too many of these buckles around for me to believe that they are all of the Berlin fire brigade. Possibly, other municipal Prussian brigades also adopted this pattern. Your buckle may have had the roundel resoldered at some time. Hard to tell from pics.

Kind regards
Kurt

[Lenny Warren]

Kurt, just a thought. Does your roundels seem firmly attached? I thought that fixing by bent tabs would result in a loose roundel. Tabs may be ok fixing badges to cloth but surely metal to metal wouldn't be tight?

[Kurt D]

Lenny, my buckles are all boxed up right now so can't check, but from memory, the roundel isn't loose but sits well on the box. I obviously didn't try to move the roundel, but it wouldn't be as tight as it would be if soldered on :-). The ears do look like the well-known Saxon army variant, but I have no idea if there is any significance to that.

Kind regards
Kurt