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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Spoof Iron Cross - Part 2


Mads Stenroos-Dam

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  • 2 weeks later...

Excellent thread!

By the way, the "gold for iron" German medals were made at the Berlin mint and handed out during gold drives/bond drives.

There's a 1916 NYT magazine article that details these.

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  • 1 month later...
Bringing this one back to the top after quite a few years - I was loaned the following for the weekend by a fellow Oxfam Hub volunteer. The story that came with it was their father acquired it with a box of tools when he was a young man from an old chap that was selling them - I've asked him if he can possibly find out his name to see if he might have served at the time, and thought other might be interested to see it:

Iron Cross 1

aVjaUDr.jpg

Iron Cross 2

PqxG1eJ.jpg

Hi Andrew - sorry to have not responded earlier - I've only just noticed that this thread has been updated. In a nutshell, the photos you've posted are exactly the same as the cross I've got. Nice to know mine isn't a one-off, and that there are others in circulation. Did you find out anything more about yours?

Regards

Neil

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Hi Andrew - sorry to have not responded earlier - I've only just noticed that this thread has been updated. In a nutshell, the photos you've posted are exactly the same as the cross I've got. Nice to know mine isn't a one-off, and that there are others in circulation. Did you find out anything more about yours?

I should point out again it's not mine, and has since been returned to it's owner ;) I was given the possible original owners name but I have forgotten it now, so haven't found anymore out.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just to inform you all; I have been in contact with Tony N, and i think that I now got the result of my "investigation" of the origin for these crosses, thanks to the pics of the envelope(the missing link).

1. Produced in UK, as a "mocking" cross - against the German Iron Cross. (CENTANDO was a UK toy maker)(mostly on the UK east-coast where there was a lot of ironworks)

2. The money for the crosses was used to help a lot of belgian refugees in UK (east coast). There was around 250.000 belgians in UK during the war.

3. The crosses was widely sold on marketplaces and on any occation where people got together for amusement or information on the war effort.

Then i have a comment on the most widely spread "cross", according to my collection it is the one with "Louvain - Rheims - Amiens" on the front, and "Dinant - Antwerp - Ghent" on the reverse.

This was French and Belgian cities, where the german soldiers shot and killed a lot of civilians.

The crusifix over "W" - means "Death to Wilhelm" (the Kaiser) and the "1914" was the year for the outbreak of war and the year of the violence.

I now have around 18 different crosses in my collection and are searching for more.

If anyone have the "envelope" for sale, please contact me!

regards

Mads

Ps: will soon post some more pics from my collection, but in a new topic.

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<snip>Then i have a comment on the most widely spread "cross", according to my collection it is the one with "Louvain - Rheims - Amiens" on the front, and "Dinant - Antwerp - Ghent" on the reverse.

Doh- of course... Ghent.<slaps forehead> Why on earth did I write CHENT in my earlier post? :rolleyes: It is a pretty rough casting, but still... :) Oh well.. thanks for the info, anyway. All helps to fill in the gaps. I'm glad I hung on to my cross now. Thereby hangs a tale I can tell my son when he grows up. The 'death to the Kaiser' thing is a brilliant bit of detective work! Well done.

Just out of curiousity, if the Dinant-Antwerp-Ghent / Louvain-Rheims-Amiens cross is the most common, I doubt mine is worth much... but you appear to have one with only ONE of those sides on it, and something completely different on the other. That, surely, must be worth a little more, no?

Any ideas what these are worth, generally? Not that I'm thinking of selling mine, but it'd be nice to know whether I ought to get it listed on the contents insurance! :D (as if!)

Ps: will soon post some more pics from my collection, but in a new topic.
Please post a link to it here, or I'll miss it. I don't get time to surf this forum very often... I only hear about things when this thread gets updated and it sends me an email...

Thanks again for all your info on these, Mads - sterling work.

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"CENTANDO" should be CETANDCO! sorry.

I cant find anything on this firm, do anyone know when they was in business or where to find the history behind this Toy-Firm?

regards

Mads

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<snip> CETANDCO <snip>

I cant find anything on this firm, do anyone know when they was in business or where to find the history behind this Toy-Firm?

Google's heard of them! ;)

It appears CETANDCO was a trading name of C.E. Turnbull and Company (CET & Co, basically). Not sure where they were based, but they were going before the first world war. Also traded under the name 'Charterhouse' (which I'm sure I remember on some of my dad's toys in the loft). Charterhouse sold Toy Forts supplied with figurines made by Britains (who made loads of farmyard toy stuff when I was a kid, I remember them well!). CETANDCO also made lead soldiers, and other war-related toys, as well as things like milk-floats! All in all, and ideal candidate firm to be making spoof metal war medals, I think!

I'll keep digging and see if I can find any decent history of the firm - but for now, these links should give a basic taster of the kinds of stuff they did. Some of it is worth a mint now!

http://fp.allenhickling.plus.com/galleries/gallery2.htm

http://www.bathantiquesonline.com/antiques...--CE-36338.html

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_det...bjectID=4717931

http://www.mailchristies.com/LotFinder/lot...bjectID=1915139

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Hello BigJacko.

Great work.

I will keep this information in my notes - thank you very much.

Regards

Mads

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  • 2 weeks later...

Can anyone help me with "The Star" - what was it? a kind of newspaper? and when was it active?

I am stille working on my informations, and will hopefully soon post the results.

Regards

Mads

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Mads,

I think the Star must have been a newspaper although I couldn't find anything online. There still is a UK paper called the Star or Daily Star but I have no idea if it has anything to do with the 'Star' on the envelope.

Tony

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Mads,

I think the Star must have been a newspaper although I couldn't find anything online. There still is a UK paper called the Star or Daily Star but I have no idea if it has anything to do with the 'Star' on the envelope.

Tony

Thanks Tony

I thought the same, and couldnt find anything on the net - too.

Have you seen my thread with swaps? (sorry no Neal's)

Regards

Mads

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