Hello,
Sorry for not jumping in sooner on your posting. I'm not the "expert" on these, though I do have opinions on them from time to time. This one is hard for me to judge, but I don't feel comfortable thinking it was produced during WW1. When it was made after that, I don't know for certain. The expert on these was Ben Weed, otherwise known as "OFW" or "Old Flags Wanted" from the WAF forum. Here is the photo from one of his threads on the WAF forum.
I suggest if you really want to buy one of these, that you should study the Flags section on WAF, and do a search on the Imperial Kriegsflagge or WW1 German Battle Flag in that "Flags" section, in order to see the variations of the eagle and the time periods that experts like Ben and others make on these "Imperial Battle Flags". They are a true "minefield" for certain, with all the fakes and replicas made over the years, plus the WW2 era made examples, and examples that were made by at least one company that existed during WW2 and made them up into the early 1960's time period from what I understand (those ones usually have the black striping pattern on the white halyard, if anyone is unaware of that manufacturer). And if you're going to be spending $500 to $1,000+ for what someone is claiming to be an original, it's best to do your homework on the excellent postings on WAF "Flags" section using their search engine feature. This forum here is a remarkably fantastic forum. I only wish that it had better info here on these Imperial German Kriegsflagge.
Unfortunately Ben passed away recently, far too early in life. And his wealth of knowledge is sorely missed.
All the Best,
Alan
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