A Rare SS Presentation Julleuchter

An SS Presentation Julleuchter - Crafted in porcelain in an earth/ruddy colour, measuring 22 x 11 cm, there are no chips or cracking. There is evidence of use and wax, extremely fine overall.  Footnote:  The SS-Julleuchter was considered both an award and trophy of the German Schutzstaffel that was presented to members of the SS from approximately 1936 until 1944 as a service decoration. Manufactured by the Allach porcelain company, the SS Julleuchter was presented to any SS member who participated in a Julfest. Heinrich Himmler originally had the intention to make the Julleuchter a standard gift to all SS members and there were no criteria attached to its presentation. For reasons which are not entirely clear, by the start of World War II, the Julleuchter had begun to be viewed as an SS decoration, and was entered as such in SS service records once the Julleuchter had been presented. However, as the SS-Julleuchter was considered "non-portable" (much like the Luftwaffe Honor Goblet), there was no outward display on an SS uniform indicating its presentation. Apparently even as the Red Army was advancing and the fall of Berlin was in the foreseeable future, The Julleuchter was used during the decoration French volunteers in the Waffen-SS. One surviving soldier said, “In the light of a candle burning on a Julleuchter, a Jule Candlestick, symbolizing the never dying sunlight, Fenet decorated a number of comrades with the Iron Cross. Although simple, the ceremony that evening seemed all the more extraordinary.”