27″ Railroad Eagle by Rhein-Metall Borsig – G216
Offering a beautiful example of a 680mm 3rd Reich rail eagle. The obverse of this plaque is extremely smooth throughout, exhibiting fine detailed features to the eagle, swastika and wreath. Additionally, it projects a more gold tinge as opposed to silver aluminum color. This may be due to some different elements used in casting these birds by this company. Looking at the metal compound stamp that was part of the mold, it list the following: GAl – Mg (Hy. The first two symbols stand for Aluminum and Magnesium. But the letters Hy is an old world element symbol for Mercury. I wonder if this could play a part in the goldish hue that this eagle projects. I’ve also seen the same effect on other eagles by this same manufacture. Furthermore the eagles manufactured by this firm are noticeably heavier than some other manufactures railway eagles . This is most likely due to the finish product having more metal in it, because of the way that it was constructed within the mold. Several other firms have a more hollow reverse, hence they are lighter in weight. There are 2 small neatly drilled holes in this eagle, with precise u shaped grooves filed in the wing edges above the holes. It’s hard to say, but this may have been done period to hang this eagle as opposed to bolting it to a surface. Also alluding to that fact is that the cone structures that these plaques came out of the mold with are sheered very cleanly off in all 4 locations. Who knows, though it is a very clean alteration which makes it very easy to display this eagle in your history room.
A fantastic looking 27” 3rd Reich railroad eagle, in every respect. SOLD