An Unattributed & Likely Early Freikorps Sympathizer’s Buckle

Buckle in brass, plain field, with hand-crafted face plate affixed to plain field buckle; marked on reverse “H. Mergenthaler, Kgl. Hofl.”; this company operated in Stuttgart, hence here we have an WWI Bavarian buckle being converted into Freikorps/pro-Nazi Sympathizer’s buckle. In worn condition, unusual.

Footnote: From the collection of approximately 900 German buckles accumulated by John R. Angolia, who start collecting buckles, belts and brocades from 1944 until around 1990; most of the buckles were obtained from the American and German veterans; most of these buckles present a core of Angolia’s book “Belt Buckles & Brocades of the Third Reich”, published in 2001.