RARE 18k gold plated vermeil silver Imperial Russian White Army Ace\'s Skull ring
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RARE 18k gold plated vermeil silver Imperial Russian White Army Ace\'s Skull ring:
$169.16
RARE 18k gold plated vermeil silver Imperial Russian White Army Ace\'s Skull ring a.imagelink {color:#484746;} a:hover.imagelink {color:#484746;} a:visited.imagelink {color:#000000;} a.imagelink img.saleimage { border: 2px solid #484746; } a:visited.imagelink img.saleimage { border: 2px solid #000000; }
I am please to offer from my private collection this RARE 18k gold plated vermeil silver Imperial Russian White Army pilot Skull ring.
The skull was an emblem of the \"Death or Glory\" - the 19th Detachment of the Imperial Russian Air Service.
The ring is signed with 84 Imperial Russian silver kokoshnik hallmark and with the master\'s hallmark FA in Russian for Feodor Afanassiev.
size;UK-S; US-9,EU-60
History:
In the First World War, men painted symbols on their aircraft as a talisman, or as a warning to the enemy, and what better icon to use threatening death and destruction than a skull and crossbones? It was employed by almost every warring nation’s pilots: Germany’s Lt. Georg Hantelmann, France’s Capt. Charles Nungesser, England’s Capt. S.H. Pratt of 46 Squadron, Italy’s Capt. Fulco Ruffo di Calabria, Austria’s Deputy Officer Julius Arigi, and by the men of Russia’s 19th Fighter Detachment, (usually written as XIX Detachment). While many pilots used the macabre design individually, it was the Russian “Death or Glory” 19th Corp Air Squadron that utilized it for the entire unit, proudly painting it on the rudder or tail surfaces of their aircraft. Death or Glory was not an empty phrase to them. The unit included a number of Russia’s highest scoring aces.When the war started in August 1914, the 19th Detachment was based at Warsaw as part of the Second Aviation Company. Starting on October 1, 1915, command of the Detachment was given to the man who would become the Imperial Russian Air Service’s most successful pilot, Cavalry Staff Captain Alexander A. Kozakov (sometimes spelled as Kazakov). His squadron was initially equipped with outmoded and unarmed Morane Gs, Morane-Saulnier Ls, and Farman and Voisin pushers. But by the end of the month Kozakov had managed to procure a Nieuport 10 single seater with which to face the enemy on more even terms. The method of arming it with a machine gun proved difficult as, at the time, Russia did not have an effective interrupter gear. So the Nieuport had the weapon angled up at 24 degrees to fire over the propeller and with this arrangement, starting in February 1916, Kozakov sought out combat. It finally proved itself in Kozakov\'s hands that summer and more of the Nieuports were equipped in the same manner. The unit was withdrawn from the front in August 1916 to restructure it with larger air units and the 19th was assembled into the First Air Combat Group, with Kozakov in overall command of the group, and returned to the front near Lutsk on September 2, 1916, now equipped with French-built Nieuport 11s and SPAD A.2s, and supplemented with Russian-made Nieuports from the DUX works. Looking to establish a reputation within the First Air Combat Group, the 19thbegan painting white skull and crossbones on their black-colored rudders. So that the unit’s pilots could identify his machines in the air, Kozakov reversed the scheme on his rudder, painting a black skull and bones on a white rudder.
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RARE 18k gold plated vermeil silver Imperial Russian White Army Ace\'s Skull ring:
$169.16