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Assmann & Sohn Skull
A new addition to the skull collection. I've seen it come up for sale a few times, but did not bother at first due to the low resolution and out of focus pictures. Seeing it again with a lower asking price…I made an offer. When it arrived, it surprised me by seeing a nicely die stamped piece that matches the Assmann & Sohn design in the catalog (#17433) from the Weimar period. After handling and inspecting this piece, The feel, construction and age that it bears tells me this is an original piece. Made out of tombac material with a silver wash finish. I would like to hear some other opinions and thoughts about this skull. Not much is known about this variant! Perhaps this was the less popular design of skull by Assmann that could have been worn by the less regulated Paramilitary and/or political organizations.
Totenköpfe Nr.17433 can be found in the F.W. Assmann & Sohn catalog under the "Abzeichen aller Art" (Translation: "Badges of all kind"). The price for this example was 12,- Reichsmarken for around 140 pieces. Unfortunately there is not any additional information that can be found with the listing.
If you look at another catalog from Assmann & Sohn in the Third Reich era, the specifications were far more specific than from the Weimar period. Some examples of this can be seen below. Totenköpfe Nr. 23778 & 16650 that were designated to "Totenkopf-Abzeichen für Tankwaffe" were available in Leichtmetall, mit weiß, Matt oder poliert Veredelung. (Translation: In light metall (Aluminum). With white, mat or polished finish) And some other items were available in different base materials, and or finishes.
I've seen a few similar examples in the past come up for sale, or being discussed here. My example above was listed as "Serbia Yugoslavia Skull Badge".
The one below being listed as "Freikorps Visor Cap" Freikorps Cap <---- Link to the whole thread that was posted here on Warrelics by Aldo.
And a similar modified example that was listed as "Italian M.V.S.N. Black Shirts Insignia". These listings are all over the place with organization names that it supposedly was worn by. I will keep it at Freikorps, or Wehrwolf for the moment. A period photo of this piece in wear would be much helpful, but sometimes this is hard with the more rare or less produced skulls that were available at the time.
-Dos
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10-24-2021 11:11 PM
# ADS
Circuit advertisement
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Very nice skull, I love it! I still regret not buying that cap.
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Dan, yours is different than the Assmann. I have one also like yours. Probably not German made.
Small Assmann-Like Totenkopf
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Thank you Gentlemen, appreciate the kind words. The Freikorps visor was indeed a nice piece.. I wonder where it went? I got lucky on this TK.. Had my doubts before it had arrived. Very happy with it!
The variant that you both have is indeed similar, but not an exact match to the Assmann design. I remembered you both posting these examples, but could not find them back via the search option.
Finding back old topics works fine in most cases, but i sometimes struggle with the more unknown variants, since most of them are unmarked. I wish we had a better solution for this.. Our own skull sub forum with some categories would be great, haha! I would be happy to support this (finding all the topics and going through all sub forums here. If needed, even financially.. And moderated by one of us skull collectors, or by the existing moderators.
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Very cool. I also like the thorough posts with the catalogs. I found an interesting picture on Kai Winkler's website. Not sure about the rules of posting this so if not correct, please have this removed admins. But all credits go to him.
On the website you have a zoomed in version of the image. It shows these skulls being used on the collar tab and the cap. Also excellent images of the armbands in use which we saw in Jannis his thread recently.
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I'll have to check that out, thanks Vocht
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Thanks Vocht, A nice picture for sure.
The skull insignia worn by these Wehrwolf Bund members on most of the collar tabs is #16460 from the F.W. Assmann & Sohn Catalog. #16455 can be seen on their visors & crushers. I am not sure, but the Wehrwolf member on the lower middle might have the more typical Wehrwolf Skull, #20955 on his collar tabs.
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