"salesman board samples"

[rbminis]

As far as the award boards go, my understanding is that they were made up by owners/employees at the end of the war by various manufacturers to be sold to G.I.s. That is why many of the boards have awards from the same maker and are often used to identify who the makers of some of the unmarked awards is.
Ralph.

[real steel]

As far as the award boards go, my understanding is that they were made up by owners/employees at the end of the war by various manufacturers to be sold to G.I.s. That is why many of the boards have awards from the same maker and are often used to identify who the makers of some of the unmarked awards is.
Ralph.

Okay, I had it all wrong. I did not think the term "Salesman Boards" related to end of war trinkets to be sold to GIs'. I was thinking they were assembled wartime by manufacturers to peddle their products to shops or the Wehrmacht directly.

Thanks Ralph

[rbminis]

Okay, I had it all wrong. I did not think the term "Salesman Boards" related to end of war trinkets to be sold to GIs'. I was thinking they were assembled wartime by manufacturers to peddle their products to shops or the Wehrmacht directly.

Thanks Ralph

Sorry, I should have said 'some' boards as I am sure that there were actually real salesman's boards.
Some of these are found to be mounted on placemats from the factory cafeteria.
Ralph.

[MAP]

Don't know much about these salesman sample boards but I would expect or think they were LDO examples that we're marketed to stores or displayed in a store for soldiers looking for replacements for worn or damaged awards or extra copies for other uniforms or to as said to be a substitute for the originally awarded badge.

No different then when you go into a store today. Go into an eyeglass store and they have displays for all different brands, or a Coke and Pepsi machine right next to each other. Or maybe the store had an exclusive contract and only sold one brand???

As far as "issued" awards, I guess that was up to the PKZ. They would contract with different makers to supply the needed allotment and then distribute based on their own process.

As far as quality (zinc vs tombak, etc.) Well at was a war time economy measure and applied to both PKZ and LDO awards.

[Wilhelm Saris]

These sample boards existed in various forms, mainly for the items that were sold by a manufacturer.
I have seen them sold at fairs in Germany in the eighties or so, by the lots and all original from
Wilhelm Deumer, Friedrich Linden, Gebrüder Gloerfeld and others. Most from the mid too late
1930's.

One of such boards you can find in my aguilette-book on page 433 for the Reichsluftschutzbund, but
the one shown there was for advise for what was worn by that particular organization.

Here is one showing what was available from a particular manufacturer, being Steinhauer & Lück (from
about 1937 or so). Salesman carried them around and stocked them in their car, as often they were
too large for a briefcase, as they were 1:1. Retailers could by them for showing to buyers in their shops.



Maybe they did make them also for orders and decorations, but such board I have never seen.

[stuka f]

I can not speak for TR sample boards, but I can for Belgian.
I had a entire factory to empty back in the early '90 ties, and they had lots of them.
At the time I started to clean the buildings much had disappeared...
The samples boards where all gone...excepted for one or two...

I managed to find one later, one a flee market. I have heard of some surfacing, but they are still hard to find.

All I remember is that those boards hung every where in the buildings of the factory,at the time they where still in business and when I visited them in the early '70 ties.
And to me they where locale made, I mean; by them self.

cheers
Kris

[real steel]

Thanks for posting Gents.

[Durango]

Hi, just adding a couple of pictures from the one that I have, said to be from a salesman display for Wilhelm Deumer.