Latest acquisition and the capstone to a collecting segment. Eickhorn Nr 1716 "Roon" pattern with identically marked obverse and reverse marked langets. Early piece, brass hilted, retains roughly 95% factory gilt. Blade is about 100%. Grip- 100%. This one's a screamer and not an easy example to find in this configuration.

This one completes my collection of Heer sabers with the oak-leaf sprig'd langets..it is #9 oak leaf langet'd Heer sabers.

A killer example which was cheap. The market is still soft and I havn't spent more than $375 on any sabers in the last 12 months.

t

Obverse langet up close.

Reverse langet- identical to obverse.

This is a killer piece, and i'm happy to report that this is the last oakleaf langet'd piece I needed. There may be more, and if so, I havn't been able to find any documentation to suggest it however.

Just a couple sisters.

As I said elsewhere Swordfish something like this IMO has to come from a fellow collector or out of the woodwork. When a dealer gets something like this he either keeps it for himself or it's immediately sold to a favored customer. IMO: You've got a really nice find there.
Jim

quote:

Originally posted by jim m:
As I said elsewhere Swordfish something like this IMO has to come from a fellow collector or out of the woodwork. When a dealer gets something like this he either keeps it for himself or it's immediately sold to a favored customer. IMO: You've got a really nice find there.
Jim

Mission accomplished or whats next?? ...

Congrats! Now what do you concentrate on?

These hand chiseled swords are usually under-appreciated, IMHO. They were expensive when new just due to the handwork.

This was actually a goal inside of another goal, inside of yet another goal....if that makes sense. Within the larger spectrum of saber collecting, seperate and smaller collecting genres exist. My ultimate goal is to attain 1 of every Army pattern saber produced during the Weimar and TR eras...though I know this to be next to impossible. However, based on my current estimations of total number of patterns and variations produced, i'm about 1/5 there.. . I do have a nagging suspicion though another example from another manufacturer exists which has the oakleaf langet motif..it will just take time, research, and luck to find it if it does infact exist.

George, I agree. We often see the finest blue panel and tripple engraved blades affixed to handworked "Roon" style saber hilts. The handworked piece back then, commanded higher sales price...ironically, today, it's worked in the opposite direction.

I recall Craig sold a really nice etched, blue panel with the 1716 single upright oak leaf on the obverse langet (like the 1st saber to the left in the 3 sisters photo I attached).

Very nice collection of Roons Swordfish!! I was looking at the Angolia sword book and he lists the 1716 model Roon with an engraved eagle as well. Do you consider this type a Roon also?

Thanks Lar.

To answer the question, yes. "Roon" is a generic term which is now used to refer to any handworked style saber (as opposed to cast). Eickhorn coined the term for their sabers which were handworked..be it the crossed oak sprigs, single oaklead, or the hand worked Wehrmacht eagle and NS symbol.

I have all the various Roon patterns from Eickhorn..both the types devoid of the NS symbol, and the examples with the eagle. We have come to use the Roon term generically for all sabers from the various manufacturers which are totally handworked and without any cast embelishments to the hilt. Technically, calling the example I photod from Alcoso a "Roon" is incorrect, but the vernacular works since we recognize the hand scrolled pieces as such.

Most people would be happy to have just one of these well done.

Just as a point of added interest!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrecht_von_Roon

Denny-
Absolutely that's where Eickhorn coined the term for the patterns. Most of the sabers in the FM series were named after historically significant Germans (mostly Prussian Generals, etc though I believe there are some exceptions):
- Prinz Eugen
- Gerhard David von Scharnhorst
- Gebhard von Bl�cher
- Hans Ernst Karl Graf von Zieten, Hans Joachim von Zieten
- Georg von Derfflinger
- and as Denny pointed out Albrecht Theodor von Roon

.....and so on. Typical of Eickhorn firm .

Tom

Tom,
Glad its in good company now.
Enjoy

George

Thank you George.

I am indeed very happy with this one. She's very comfortable amoungst her peers. As I had mentioned earlier in the thread, i've been going nuts this year buying up sabers, and have been fortunate enough to find some wonderful examples at very attractive prices. I've always taken advantage of the market for pieces with low collector demand, such as these examples which are devoid of any NS symbolism. So often collectors only have interest in examples with the glaring eagle and crooked cross...which is s shame. Case in point, one of our collecting brethren from Australia/NZ had listed an incredible and very scarce saber on fleaBay some months back. The piece didn't have the wehrmacht eagle and simply had a Uhlan style motiff on it's obverse langet. The piece is a truly scarce example, which was mint. Because many average collectors don't care for pieces without the swas, it sold unfortunately for about $550. A shame considering the pieces condition and scarcity. I would have bid, but conversely would have felt bad if I had won the piece at that price, and ultimately I would have sent the seller more $$ since he's a friend of mine.

It goes to show how in the collecting world things sometimes are backward and incredible pieces are often overlooked by the average collector because they don't scream national socialism. I had thought another collector would have grabbed this Roon (from George) before I got to it as the price kept falling. But nobody did and I had to jump on her. Conversely, I watched a piece of garbage Alcoso Nr. 119 sell on eBay some months back for roughly $700...and the piece was trash. Devoid of any factory gilting, spotty and pitted blade, 50%-50% scabbard..no etch, nada. And to top it all off, it's probably Alcoso's most prolific saber. Very common, crappy condition, and yet it commanded $700- a bidding war ensued..while wonderful pieces like the Uhland piece I describe sits alone with little interest all because it's missing the eagle