Description
An excellent and totally fresh to the collector market German WWII SA dagger ! This old relic came directly from the estate of a WW2 combat veteran who brought it home in 1945 from Germany. The acid etched “Alles für Deutschland” motto and “Neptun Solingen” maker mark are both beautifully executed and very crisp. The crossgrain is easily visible all the way from the hilt to the tip. The fit remains nice and tight and the tip comes to a perfect point. This blade rates about fair to good with grey/spotting and surface scratches throughout.
The steel based, brown anodized scabbard retains 60% + of its original factory lacquer and the solid nickel scabbard fittings are nicely patinaed matching the crossguards in color and wear. The ball on the lower mount has a pressure mark to the bottom and one screw is missing. The scabbard / crossguard fit is near perfect and closes tightly. The reverse of the lower crossguard is marked “No” ( the German group Nordsee). The brown hardwood grip looks good. It shows even wear and has one very minor chip near the pommel above the roundel. The solid nickel eagle retains beautiful details and has a perfect fit. The SA roundel has a perfect fit and retains 98% of its enamel. A great early SA dagger that is rated a rarity of 9 on a scale of 10, as the maker only supplied about 3,000 daggers.
The Küpper & Oertling, Stahlwarenfabrik, Solingen, Germany partnership began in 1918 with Karl Küpper and Franz Oertling. The Neptun tradename was originally registered by Karl Küpper of Hohscheid bei Solingen in 1898. Küpper also registered several variation trademarks around that time. The Küpper & Oertling company registered in Solingen on April 16, 1919. An advertisement published in the 1922 Solingen und sein Industriebezirk, listed Neptun’s products as: pocket knives, cutlery and scissors. Alfred Oertling was listed as the sole owner in 1928. By the time of the Third Reich, this company made some of the first of the early era SA daggers . In 1939, the company was located on Kolnerstrasse 28-30.
