Early Franke & Co - 1936

[weller]

Well, I've been anxiously waiting for this one to arrive. When I saw the maker mark I did not know who it was, never seen this one before. Good news is Markus had posted an early Franke & Co RAD on the main thread. Maker stamp on front leather worn but looks like 1936 and I can barely see Ludenscheid. Cool part is the unique maker mark on the reverse side of the buckle. Ben and I reviewed this RAD prior and it seems to be on the rarer side

[Gwar]

A very nice and desireable Rad buckle !! G

[kirby]

Excellent buckle. The rare pebbled DAF variant from Franke is the only other buckle I have seen with this mark.

[kirby]

Front

[weller]

Thanks Kirby. Those pics look like yours, if so, that is one fine and rare DAF!

[Ben Evans]

Nice buckle Jeff most people will have only seen a handful with this makers mark nice buckle 😊

[Australia]

Beautiful looking buckle , thanks for showing .

[Wilhelm Saris]

There are only about 14 buckles forms in a Franke catalogue for the more common organizations:
army, airforce, NSFK (which is the well-known DLV form), Feuerlöschpolizei, Pol.Leiter, police,
Reichsarbeitsdienst and Bergbau. Some exist in the so-called Behörden- und Extra-Ausführung.
So there is a hunt for the marked and mentioned versions from this manufacturer.

The shown Werkschar one is not included in the cataloque from about 1939/1940, just the
double-claw. Maybe it was a form which was not sanctioned after all! Maybe for that reason
it does not have the RZM M4-code!

[weller]

So, we have RAD and DAF with this early Franke & Co maker mark. Anyone else have an example with this maker stamp ?

[kirby]

Thanks for the additional Information. You will find pebbled Werkschar buckles with a RZM code. David North has one posted in the DAF/Werkschar sticky thread. It is an Overhoff and is marked RZM M/4/27. I was surprised that two companies made this type buckle.