Military Collectibles

Want to trade for this sword?  Contact us at 715-557-1688 or mbrice@stcroixblades.com to let us know what you have in trade.

1 identified antique 1874-1876 German Officer’s Naval Sword.  This sword comes with its portepee.  This sword is identified on the fold-down guard to an officer on the German WW1 era Cruiser ‘Cormoran’. 
A whole book of archival materials on the officer E. Fratschera has been dug up, and comes with this fine sword.  There are around 100 pages of 
history on this officer and on the ‘Cormoran’. 
This sword was made by Carl Eickhorn.

Dimensions: The length in the scabbard is 93.0 cm, the length of the blade is 78.5 cm, the width of the blade at the heel is 1.8 cm.
The blade is steel, slightly curved, one-edged, with one wide cut on each side; at the bottom of the rectangular heel. On the left side of the heel there is stamped the manufacturer in the form of two squirrels. The blade on both sides is decorated with etched ornamentation, consisting of (from the bottom up) images of the ship; an anchor wrapped in a chain; imperial German crown; crossed arrows and a lighthouse. All images are interspersed with curly ribbons.

On the other side of the blade (from below upwards) is the ship; Anchor with chain; imperial German crown; ship’s wheel, crossed guns; military armature, as well as curly ribbons.
Between the blade and the hilt is a red cloth wiper strip.
Ephesus is bronze, cast, gilded. Consists of an arch, pommel with a back and two folding flaps – large and small; the handle bone.
The bow of the hilt is a slotted, with the image of laurel leaves. A large scutum panel with a picture of laurel leaves; in an oval imperial crown over an anchor with a chain. The small flap is also slotted, with laurel leaves, and the name “Fratzscher” is engraved on the inside.

The top is made in the form of a lion’s muzzle, the left eye with a red glass, and the right one with a green one. Backrest with a relief image of the lion’s mane and laurel leaves.
Bone handle with perpendicular grooves, inside of which there are three rows of brass twisted wire.
The hilt has a portepee in the form of a string of woven silver threads with red veins and brushes made of twisted yarn.

The sheath is made of black leather, the mouth, the clip and the tip of the scabbard are brass, gilded, with a relief image of laurel leaves. At the mouth of the scabbard on the inside of the pin, with which the sword is mounted in a sheath. On the tip of the scabbard is a protruding flat ridge.

An officer with such a name is present in the nominal lists of the German Kaiser’s fleet from 1914 to 1918. and was listed on the auxiliary cruiser “Cormoran”
.
It should be noted that the surname of the owner on the saber shield is given in the Fratzscher variant, and it is in this form present in the early list of officers of the German fleet, where they manually corrected the name “Fratscher” without the letter “z” in the middle. In this version, it exists in subsequent documents. Probably, the difficult pronunciation of the original surname made the owner simplify it, which is quite typical for the army and navy of any country.

To this saber are attached three sets of documents related to the life and activities of the owner of the saber Erich Fratschera (Frattsher) and to the ship “Cormoran”, on which he served.
The auxiliary cruiser Cormoran (the former passenger steamship Ryazan) had a rather unusual fate. Caught without coal in the neutral waters of the island of Guam during the First World War, he remained there for three years until the Americans colonizing Guam and declaring war on Germany demanded his surrender and disarmament. The commander refused and ordered the ship to be scuttled.
The first set of materials includes three photographs (one of them is genuine) of Erich Fratschera and his wife, supplemented with a cloth strip with crossed anchors and a brass stamped gilded emblem (on a tunic or on shoulder straps?) In the form of crossed anchors, as well as photocopies of documents, associated with ships and officers of the imperial German navy of 1914 – 1918. These documents are supplemented with photocopies from books and magazines, concerning Guam and the location of the German ship Cormoran there.

The second set consists of photocopies of covers and separate sheets from books in English “The Cormorant”, “German raids into the southern seas” with the image of “Cormoran”, “Americanization” (tells the story of the development of Guam USA), “German ships of World War I “And” The History of Guam “; as well as a photocopy of the article “Destruction of” Cormoran “in English.
The third set is correspondence related to the history of the Cormoran and its marches to the southern seas; a photocopy of the book “Desperate campaign. The history of the German cruiser “Cormoran” in the First World War. “