(groan) has that thing surfaced again? #-o Fortunately, its consignment so Ken G. did not buy it to sell.
When it first came on eBay I think (?) it sold for around $5K but I cannot recall exactly. I call it the "Hitler's Diary" or "Burial Box of James the Brother of Jesus" syndrome, (please pick one) where something surfaces that is just so outrageous, people are blinded by what it purported to be, rather than what it is if it is looked at objectively.
By stepping back and actually looking at the group, I see a Preußen Train officer Pickelhaube, with a Pioneer (or Artillery etc) Schirmmütze, both with two different patterns of Totenkopf.
As far as I am aware, only one new unit in the great war was awarded the honour of wearing a Totenkopf, and that was the flame thrower unit of the Garde-Reserve Pionier-Bataillon (Flammenwerfer). It was awarded the honor of wearing the Death's Head (Totenkopf) on their sleeve by decree of the Kaiser in 1916.
The Totenkopf on the chicken, does not even look like the Imperial IR92 version, rather it looks like the type worn by the Third Reich 17 Inf regt and 41st Cavalry regt. The one on the Schirmmütze is a fake that surfaces all the time on ebay. The shoulder boards are Pioneer and huge and so-convenient labels in three sizes in a identical font which are not worth commentary. :sign11:
So you have some guy wearing a Train Pickelhaube, with an Artillery/Pionier Schirmütze, both with unauthorized tradition Totenkopf, wearing Pioneer boards, and his is blind and has to have HUGE labels in everything to remind him which unit he is with? Head injury huh?
A clumsy fellow too, he spilled tea inside his cap..........
