Franco-Prussian War Veterans Flag
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GUEST:
The flag was brought to me by my husband, who got it from his grandfather, who was over in Germany during World War II, and he brought back some treasures.
APPRAISER:
What do we know about his service in World War II? Not much.
GUEST:
We know that he was in the concentration camps and we know that he did go into Hitler's house and possibly the Eagle's Nest, but we're not really sure.
APPRAISER:
What you have is a flag that came home with a veteran from World War II, but isn't from World War II.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
And we see that an awful lot with the guys who are hunting for souvenirs, spoils of war. It's been a cultural passion of soldiers for generations. You bring home a souvenir of your service, and the prettier, the better. And these are pretty hard to resist, but they're not actually from World War II. This particular flag is a Prussian veteran's flag from the Franco-Prussian War.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
And the reverse side of this flag has a 1908 date on it, which tells us that it's not a World War I veteran's flag, it's a Franco-Prussian War veteran's flag. You have a Prussian eagle.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And then, typically they're embroidered with the name of the town, and in this case, this is a little town in Westphalia. That is almost certainly where it came from.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
And then the Prussian crown. The translation says, "We Germans fear God, but nothing else in this world." And so it's very patriotic, it's very martial, and they're absolutely beautiful. But a lot of them did come home in World War II simply because they were so attractive. In the details, you have a lot of heavy embroidery, you have the Prussian eagle on the figure's chest there, Prussian spiked helmet down below with the trophy of arms. It's in beautiful condition. It's a silk flag. Typically what you see is they've kind of fallen apart. The value on these in this nice condition and from the Franco-Prussian War as opposed to World War I, which is more common, I would expect to see a retail value of $2,500 to $3,000.
GUEST:
Wow. Very impressive.
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