SMGP-1045 Deutsche Reichsbahn Champagne bucket *SOLD

A fascinating piece and most impressive in size! I believe this would have been the largest piece within the deutsche reichsbahn Silverware set, and possibly one of the rarest. After all…when is the last time you have seen one!?!? This item is about 9″ in diameter and just over 9″ tall. These are marked with a train logo and car number. Also they come marked “ALPAKA” which is a type of German silver which is not genuine silver, but more of a nickel alloy. Ofcorse we have a silver plate on this item which may have confused the GI who thought he was bringing home a precious metal! The condition overall is excellent! The silver plate has taken on a nice great tone with some pinks and purples mixed in. There are some scuff and scratches but nothing off putting. The inside you can see a little more wear, likely due to the fact that the piece was used fairly often!

“The Special Trains of Hitler, G?ring et al,” by James A. Yannes (Outskirtspress, 2015) Jim Yannes informs us that the maker’s mark of a “B” and a long train locomotive was the mark of the famous Bruckmann firm, the same firm that produced Hitler’s Formal and Informal silverware. The number “212” is the carriage designation for which pieces of silverware/tableware were assigned to which particular train car — and each car on these “Sonderzug” — special trains assigned to government and military personnel — carried it’s own specific number. On p.103 we see: “Some further additional comments by Mr. Nestvogel shed further light on the Sonderzug: “Perhaps some pieces with marks 210, 211 and 212 also exist. The tableware and silverware of these three cars was delivered and used as replacement for lost equipment of other cars.”” [Mr. Jens Nestvogel was a consultant on portions of the text presented by Jim Yannes.]

So, according to Yannes, this champagne bucket would have been part of the reserve stock used to replace missing or damaged pieces on other carriages of these special trains.