UBB.threads Forums Edged Weapons Miscellaneous Dagger Forum My one and only - NPEA

Gentlemen,

I would love to introduce my recently aquired NPEA dagger.

Normaly I do not appreciate TR daggers that much. Of course I do own a few which were issued to armed forces, but for my personal taste there were a little bit too many dagger patterns for a 12yrs infamous period. I always had the feeling that the Nazis left out just bus-conductors when they lavishly issued daggers to simply everybody wearing a uniform. As a naval dagger guy an Imperial naval dagger is the real McCoy for me. But that is just my taste and I do respect what other collectors are doing.

So why I bought this dagger, having a strongly patinated scabbard where just a slight rest of the original greenish color remains under the scabbard frog otherwise the color is absent and the primer is seen next to old rust and scratches?

It is the motto. For me it is one of the most impressive mottos one can find on an edged weapon at all

Mehr sein als scheinen - be more than you appear.

Wow, just cool.
Great motto for all situations in life, always true. In a world full of posers, braggarts, dandies and wannabes this beautiful motto seems to be fallen out of time, a reminder what is really important.

I have looked for such a piece more then seven years til I was able to find this one with the kind help of a collector friend of mine.
During this time I stumbled into Zillions of more or less well made fakes, put together Frankensteins and real wrecks, at least the wrecks were original.
Of course, this dagger is from a first glance easy to copy, a Bonanza for fakers. On a closer look the structure of this edged weapon is way more complified than one will believe which I found out while reading Ron's great Waffenleite on NPEA's.

What urged a collector like me to purchase a dagger with a rusty scabbard and an old leather frog besides the expressive motto and the more or less nice blade for a crazy price?
The signs of wear, the patina.
I love to see where the dagger crossguard is residing in the leather frog since decades, leaving behind small traces of the crossguard shape. I love to look carefully under the frog, which I did not dared to remove, and to see the original olive green paint, so different to a repainted original or newly made scabbard fake.
I love to locate this artefact with the Spandau stamp and the weapon number, this all makes an edged weapon for me understandable and authentic.

The look at such an item is the essence for me in the collecting hobby, it brings satisfaction and some peace of mind.

This piece will be featured in a German study from Ralf Siegert, so I just want to show a few pictures here.

Thanks for looking.

Best regards;
Hermann

Hermann, Thanks for sharing your pictures of your NPEA dagger. It looks to me to be all original, and has the correct true NPEA frog. This dagger school stamping however, presents a mystery. I have some SPandau marked NPEAs, and have saved pictures of many from the internet. The SP marked daggers up to SP 291 are all early nickel silver, and the SP font is different from yours. Yours is a later aluminum dagger, yet has an early SP number. The Sp font on your dagger looks like the one found on my dagger marked B-Sp for Berlin Spandau, and it is an early dagger as well. We will have to ask Ron Weinand to comment on your dagger. Was it a reissued dagger to replace one lost or destroyed, resulting in an early number on a later dagger????? Your dagger truly is "more than it appears to be."

Here is a picture comparing the Sp and period, which to me, looks like the same SP and period stamp was used.

Here's my Spandau graduation piece, some people dont like the 1 ..
But it is what it is... and i like it.. :-)

Hi,

interesting observation.

I think these daggers were not progressively numbered from 1934 until 1945. An age group wise numbering could also explain the low weapon number on a later piece.

Regards;
Hermann

Looks like an original dagger to me Stirnpanzer, once again, not the more common S.P font, but consistent with these other examples.

Sp 1 would not have an aluminum guard and I don't like the fonts, but its just my opinion and they differ from John's.

Ron, the Sp 1 guards look nickel to me? They just have been protected from patination.

Perhaps Stirnpanzer can confirm, or better yet, show us the inside markings of Sp 1.

I agree, these fonts are different, but with Sp font being possible the exact same as seen on my early example makes me wonder if there is a possible period explanation.

Thanks, John

Hi,

Yes, they are nickel cross guards.

And was fortunately stored well post war, by a non collector.

I don't have it to hand at the moment, i will get some pics of the internal markings in the next day or so.

Regards Mark

Very nice find Hermann well done

Stylized 'H' on tang, horseshoe 'S' cross guards, couldn't be any more textbook.

Regards Mark

I agree, looks all original. The style of the graduation marking is the same as one I have. I can't imagine any reason for a bogus school marking, especially with three examples. I don't have an explanation for the Sp font change, but these three daggers look original in my opinion. John

I've always had a love for the NPEA Daggers. I swear when you pick one up, they seem to almost talk to you! vintagetimenow has been specializing in these for years and has great knowledge base on these pieces.

Gailen

Tang and crossguard markings are correct.

Ron: Knows these NPEA Dagger better then anyone. I Attended a seminar On NPEA Daggers he did at the MAX show years ago. I must say it was by far the best seminar I have ever attended. No kidding.

Gailen David

Gailen, thanks for the kind words, from one old timer to another. Merry Christmas!

Just made an observation.

On the large S.P. "Textbook" (I don't like that word..) markings the number 1 and 2 does "not" have a serif on the base

Whereas ALL the small S.P. on "have" a serif on the number 1 and 2 (small and large version eg: B-SP. 102 )


Gets more interesting...

all this talk on NPEAs made me want to take a new group shot, hehehe

John, you need to get serious about collecting NPEAs

Remember John, no one likes a show-off.

Is this what you call " Type Collecting " ?
Fabulous collection and probably the best in the world, congratulation.

Wow! Impressive! Now I know why there is nothing in the market.
Rgds;
Hermann

Come on John, I want that Orainienstein Grad piece you got from Dons to match my Koslin...

When its all said and done, these graduation NPEAs are way underrated, both in value and rarity. When you consider how small the classes were, the survival rate, etc. they are way under priced. Try to find one!!!

Ron is right, as ever. Just glad I snagged this graduate piece a few years back.

John i am totally gobsmacked!! what a collection its no wonder everyone else is struggling to find one

Ron: I remember a time when no one wanted one of these "UGLY" daggers in their collection. Things are different now and people are beginning to appreciate the rarity and value of the NPEA daggers. I believe your book has contributed to this renewed interest and it's still the only definitive reference on the subject.

Thanks for the comments guys. The only way I was able to build this extensive of an NPEA collection is by starting 30 years ago, before they were popular, and buying every reasonably priced real NPEA I could find. The dagger had to be at least school marked, but graduation marked was better, early nickel even better, and if it had a real NPEA frog, wowza >>> the Holy Grail. I would ask Ron to be sure they were real if I could, until I gained experience. I talked to Tom Wittmann at an OVMS show in the early 1980s, and he said there were maybe one thousand SS daggers to every one NPEA, but not many collectors wanted one because they didn't have a swastica(except Leader, and Eickhorns). The school stampings really caught my interest, along with the hand engraved graduation markings. Isn't history a wonderful study?

Here's a very interesting documentary recently made out of Germany on the NAPOLA schools, too bad it is in German but I bought the original DVD and they have an english sub-title to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwUSS097XTE

John,you have a fantastic collection,congrats

Stingray

Can't let this one go without showing my only NPEA-issued at Wahlstatt then transferred to Plon upon closure of the first institution:

Nice Paul. That's a "Holy Grail" example! sweet!

Wow, another nice example Barry. Love the school/Grad marked ones.

Very nice find Hermann well done