Whats up with this buckle?

[Aldarith]

VINTAGE GERMAN EM BELT BUCKLE with CROSSED KEYS EMBLEM on eBay.ca (item 400120321308 end time 03-Oct-10 18:17:33 EDT)

So the seller says its a WWII buckle, but that it's a hotel staff or security buckle. Is it actually a German buckle? I'm just curious about this, having never seen one before.

[David North]

The "Crossed Keys" emblem symbolises many different meanings to many different people.

There are documented, many German belt buckles with the Crossed Keys emblem and I think that some date back from the mid nineteenth century. I have always thought that they were essentially in house security or watchman related (rather than the Locksmiths Guild), although I suspect that early Crossed Key buckles had a totally different meaning.

The one that you refer to appears in a well respected German buckle publication as Wachdienst. Having said that, I think that the one on offer is post 1945, rather than pre 1945.

Regards,

David

[Aldarith]

might you have any clue to what it's actually worth? If it's a little bit less expensive I may message the seller to try and work something out.