Description
This is one of the rarest items i could ever offer on the website: an original German engraved and awarded pocketwatch from 1941.
Lets first see what is all in the group:
– An original German awarded and engraved pocketwatch (see under here for explanaition)
– A copy of a period newspaper article from 1941, in which this particular pocketwatch is explained (!)
– A large framed photo of Lighthouse Keeper Gustav Petersen. It shows him in his period lighthouse keeper uniform with lighthouse keeper visor cap with insignia.
– A clock which belonged to Petersen and was sold together with the watch by his daughter. On the back of the clock the husband of the daughter wrote the name of the clock and it’s age. The clock was explained by the daughter as to have hung in the lighthouse and was an important commemorative item of her father.
The background:
“On 20 January 1940 a German Trawler ran aground of Lohals (in the Eastsea near Denmark) and two men of the ships crew went overboard and tried walking two miles on the frozen ice towards the Danish mainland to obtain help. However, they did not get further as halfway when the ice they walked on began to drift and they fond themselves standing on a floating piece of ice of 10-15 meters in diameter at sea. From the mainland the two German crewman had been observed, but it was not before long before a couple of brave and courageous men, being lighthouse keeper Gustav Petersen from the Franke Klint lighthouse, and fisherman Viggo Madsen, tried to save them and reach them by a rowboat. After a strenous voyage they reached about 100 fathoms from the foating ice, but had to give up when the ice endangered the small rowboat. On the dangerous return trip the lighthouse keeper fell into the water and suffered light frostbite. The two men reached the mainlad again badly injured. Towards the evening, the German crewmembers on the floating ice were rescued by an icebreaker named “Storebjorn”. At the “Carnegie-Fondets” [Carnegie foundation?)] and awarding of Hero awards, Gustav Petersen and Viggo madsen were on the list. They each recieved 500 danish Kronen from the foundation. Also the German Consulate in Svendborg awarded them a silver watch with inscription (!). The hero’s award came as a total suprise to the two men. Neither of them had expected to hear more about the floating ice adventured from previous year“.
The particular pocketwatch mentioned in the above translation from the newspaper article that comes with the watch is the exact one we offer here. This particular engraved pocketwatch, the clock and large ramed photo have recently been direct purchased from the daughter of Gustav Petersen. They have never been in another collection before.
Any World War II collector knows how many fake engraved pocketwatches are doing the rounds in the collecorsscene, this is for a change an original, with 100% verified background!!! It does not get rarer or beter. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to obtain an original german engraved and awarded pocketwatch grouping!
