German Shotglasses...and lots Of them!

[don_kihotis7]

Very nice collection William. Thanks for the effort on the detailed info.

[bigmacglenn]

Fantastic collection of Ostfront Trench-Art, thanks for sharing these unique items with us...I wouldn't mind having one of those in my collection, I hope they're still reasonably affordable...?
cheers, Glenn

[Wagriff]

Hello Glenn, If you're going to look for one, be Very careful, as, like I said, the Eastern Euro fakers have finally noticed these things and figured out how easy they are to make and get decent money for. With brass, it's simple enough to age them quickly and unless you know the seller well, it's getting quite spooky collecting them! But, having said that, they really aren't all that much money when you do come across one. It depends on the Unit Marking and how elaborate the engraving job is. Just a ordinary shell marked say, "Stalingrad 1942" or "Wolga 1942", they usually go in the $50 range, but of late I've seen even double that for common types. A shell case shotglass with no markings at all can still be picked up for, maybe 20-25 bucks. I've had diggers offer me groups 20 or 30 pieces of unmarkeds for a few hundred dollars, but I've always liked the Unit marked pieces. An elaborate one with, say, the Luftwaffe Udet engravings or the "Gross Deutschland" can be closer to a couple of hundred. So, not only are they fairly inexpensive still(for Now...), but they can still be used for their original purpose as well! Good luck!

[Wagriff]

If you like these, be sure to take a look at "Part 2" of the thread. There's some good one in it too. I had to split the thread into 2 parts, as the 1st half began getting finicky about photos not showing up.
https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/germa...rt-2-a-341830/

[Paul D]

Very nice William i like the JG 3 ones and the IR 15 one in particular as i have had quite a bit to do with Stalingrad veterans from both units.

Your JG3 one from Pitomnik i can narrow down even further for you it will almost certainly be form the 9 Staffel as they were the ones who provided the Pitomnik Platzschutzstaffel.

[Wagriff]

Interesting info, Paul! One has to wonder, did the Maker of these shots get out with the rest of the Flyers from the airbase, or were they simply left to the wolves, so to speak, when the last of the planes left for good. They're fascinating little collectables, I think, and endlessly interesting to ponder over! So many units of all branches simply "ceased to exist" after the beginning of 1943, if the lads who made most of these didn't get killed outright, I imagine they faced a grim future in Soviet captivity. Only a few thousand ever saw home again, out of all the tens of thousands that were marched off East with the Red Army as prisoners.