WWII S.A. Desk Eagle or Paperweight, Authentic?

[polytechlegend]

Hello everyone,

I was having difficulty, with absolute certainty, labeling a WWII possibly pre-war S.A. Desk Eagle a reproduction or not. I'm more a firearms gent, so this piece is kind of out of my league.

I was wondering if anyone could help me identify if it is authentic or not. I am of course very skeptical, so I'm leaning towards no, but I could use other opinions.

[MAP]

Welcome to the Forum Polytech. Not my area but it looks like it lacks definition and details. My gut is that it is a cast fake.

That said, others with much more experience should be around shortly with a more definitive answer.

Regards,

M

[polytechlegend]

Thank you M.

Those were my exact thoughts, the Germans, especially towards the beginning the war manufactured firearms of excellent quality, and every part is usually marked as well. The sloppiness of the casting, the lack of patina, and overall "feel" is screaming fake to me, but I'm not an expert.

However, one thing that intrigued me were the early castings of S.A. Desk Eagles, which to my surprise, look very similar. Alternatively though, most examples I found were bronze castings for the S.A. Desk Eagles, and most have a different back, obviously for standing display on the desk.

That is where I found another article, on this website, that said some of these were actually casted in the manner of the one I own, and for the sole purpose of being paperweight. Unfortunately I couldn't find any examples for comparison, which is why I reached out to the greater intelligence of the Universe for this one.

This came in a large estate purchase, with authentic and reproduction military items, which also adds to my confusion. This guy wasn't afraid to buy a fake or produce one, he literally has photocopies of all the Signal Magazines the Germans printed during the war, no clue what he did with the originals.... haha

[rbminis]

The single hole in the reverse would lead me to believe it was meant to be hung on a wall.
That being said, I have to agree with Michael, it looks like a copy to me as well.
Ralph.

[85ronnies]

Hi ploytech, here is the back of an original one,from this i think the one you show in the photo is a fake, hope this helps,
cheers, Ronnie

[polytechlegend]

Thank you Gentlemen. Ralph and Ronnie you are probably right. The construction I've seen on the back of most of the eagles, regardless of the purpose, resembles most closely to what you posted Ronnie. I just wanted to be sure before I go using a piece history as a paperweight, and then there's that nagging feeling as a collector you get, the one that's always in the back of your head "Maybe I missed something".

I know my firearms, especially pre-1899, but I say this... anything German from WWII gives me the willies when it comes to collecting. Some of the fakes are getting so old now they are gathering real patina...., this is hard world to collect in. I envy the knowledge and passion it takes to be even remotely proficient at spotting the fakes in this field.


I hope to frequent this board more, perhaps I can learn a thing or two. Again, thank you fine gents.

[BOB COLEMAN]

These were first faked in the mid 1960's by the same individual who made the first fake railway eagles.

[military]

Cast fake from 1960s-70s.

Mil