SS Ribbon Bar

[alekss]

Hello all,


This has been a very recent acquisition and I was hoping for some opinions/insight on the ribbon bar from our resident experts as I'm not particularly well versed in this area?

Please feel free to comment, all opinions are most welcome.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

Aleks

[Adrian]

Not keen to be honest, it looks like a fake 'Cave Creek' special.

[HPL2008]

I agree with Adrian. It's no good.

Any bar with an SS-Dienstauszeichnung [SS Long service award] on it has to be regarded with the greatest skepticism, as the vast majority of those are fake, with only very few original examples known. Usually, they are brought down by the runic devices alone, which is the case here as well: Original examples have precise, uniform angles and sharp details absent from the ones seen here.

Also, only the highest bestowed grade of the SS long service awards was authorized to be worn, not two or more simultaneously, but this bar has both the 25- and 12-year grades.
The 25-year award was not actually awarded, anyway, but if it were, the combination with the 10-year NSDAP Dienstauszeichnung would not be plausible: The SS long service awards were instituted for active service with the SSVT, SSTV and the SS-Junkerschulen, i.e. the later Waffen-SS. Previous service in the party and its various branches counted towards fulfilment of the service period, so anybody authorized the 25-year SS service award would have been eligible for a higher grade of the party service award than the 10-year version.

Also note how poorly assembled the whole bar is: The devices are aligned unevenly, with no two on the exact same height. The metal mounting plate protrudes on the left and the right (both beyond the ribbons on the obverse side and the backing on the reverse side). The red backing material protrudes on the top edge.

[Glenn66]

Looks very similar to this bad boy here...also determined to be a 'cave creek' special

[alekss]

Many thanks for your insightful comments to everyone that responded.

What had initially appealed to me about this one was that it actually looked appropriately aged and the fact that I got it from a fellow collector who had had it in his collection for the past 20-odd years. Now I've known this fellow for a while and he's as honest as the day's long so I have no reason to doubt that he had bought it in good faith all those years ago believing it to be a genuine article, which only leads me to assume that it must be an old fake then.

Nevertheless, disappointment is a bitter pill to swallow as they say...

Out of interest, does anyone happen to have any photos of one that's deemed to be the genuine article for comparison for future references?


Cheers,

Aleks