|
Greetings, all. I would appreciate the benefit of your experience regarding this hirschfanger. Having perused Houston's guide, there are several areas which make me think that this is a later-manufactured piece. It is marked "Alex Coppel Solingen" which is different from the "ALCOSO" markings that I have seen on known legitimate hirschfangers, among other things.
I acquired this several years ago, more for display than as a collector piece. However, several months ago there was a militaria collectors' show in a nearby city and I brought this hirschfanger along to see if I could find a frog for it. Handing it to a gentleman who had a large collection of (mostly WWII) bayonets and daggers, he told me that it would take a "Red Cross frog" but that he did not have any for sale that day. He complemented me on the piece, and I asked him in what era he thought it had been manufactured. He took a quick look at it and pronounced it to be "Imperial period." This rather surprised me.
More recently, I encountered another gentleman who also sold German militaria, and he happened to have a Red Cross frog on hand. It did not fit, but a WWII-era Parade Frog did (mostly) fit, at least up to the brass stop on the scabbard. He did not know what era it was from, but opined that it was "quite old." I'm not so sure, as the designs on the handle and the toe of the scabbard seem a bit too contrived. Still, it appears to be fairly well made.
So what do we have here -- assembled from parts during the Allied Occupation or something earlier?
| 
