Reddish-brown mg box?
Hi everyone,
Yesterday I bought a german ww1 MG ammo box. Instead of the standard green or unpainted ones, this one had a layer of reddish-brown paint. I first assumed it had been repainted post-war. But then I found this one online. It has the exact same color of paint. Could this be something original?
Greetings Bram
WW1 German Maxim Machine Gun Ammunition Box
Hello Bram.by BramVdV1
It is always best to upload any photos from links directly to the thread. The reason for this is that the link will eventually die and any context will be lost.
Kind regards,
Will.
Hi Bram,
It would be great to see some images of the one you purchased for comparison.
Of the numerous examples I’ve seen, they have all been painted in darker shades of feldgrau, left unpainted or some in camo. But perhaps this is another shade that was used? Having said that, it does seem to go against the grain in terms of the general colours used by the Imperial German army at the time, but who knows. The paint does look old but it’s really hard to say if it was added 20 years after the war and used for storing other items.
Andy
This is the one I bought. It has a similar shade of paint on the outside. But it has also an extra handle with a card holder added. I'm just curious if the paint was added at the same time this handle was added or if it's original. What does concern me however is the color of the paint on the inside, that's defenetly newer than the paint on the outside.
Greetings, Bram
The handle with card holder appears to be an addition. Have not seen anything like this on other period examples of WW1 German MG08 Maxim wooden crates. The positioning of the screws is particularly sloppy and not something I could imagine the Imperial German army being responsible for. Can’t really tell what the paint on the inside is, but the paint on the outside does look a lot more recent than 1918. It appears to be painted over a surface that has not be properly prepared perhaps using old oil based household paints or similar, so in my opinion was re-purposed after the war for other use as many of them were.
Allright, thanks! What would be the best option: just leaving it as it is, removing the handle with card holder or remove the paint too and have it as an unpainted original one?
You might want to do some further research just to be certain or to see if anyone has further information on the paint. You could leave it as is, i.e. in a repurposed state or remove the paint. I’d be inclined to leave it as is, as thats how you found it and that is the history it had after WW1. It will never look like a 100 plus year old MG08 box and there are still plenty of them out there that you can purchase in original condition.
Allright! Thank you very much!
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