Antique Mall find: WWI Italian Army Portrait with Medals and Documents

[teamski]

Hey guys,

 

I dragged my wife to Historicon in Lancaster PA this weekend and wouldn't you know, I found this at an antique mall.  It is a WWI portrait of an Italian Soldier with a WWI War Medal and WWI Victory Medal sewn to the photo.  What really got me interested in it was that the docs were in a plastic sleeve on the back of the frame.  These included the soldier's service record form and to really top it off, the certificate for WWI War Medal with the Victory Medal citation pasted on.  Both documents are pretty rough but overall, pretty cool in my book.  The grouping cost $70, so not too bad.  I haven't found anything of interest in my neck of the woods for years up to now.   The WWI War Medal's ribbon is dry rotted, so I am going to take a good photo of the portrait and replace the ribbon with another one I have on hand and sew the medal back on.

 

-Ski

[RRA227]

Nice find.  Rich A. in Pa.

[SARGE]

Neat grouping.  I have never seen the award certificate before.

 

[teamski]

Looking him up, Ottavio Conti passed away in 1980 in PA, which now makes sense. 

[Ludwigh 1980]

Great find. I've noticed quite a bit of militaria is coming out of the woodwork lately. 

[Preppy Picker]

You deserve this find and should get out more because you’re on a roll.

[teamski]

I dropped by Adamstown PA for a couple days on my way to Niagara Falls to watch the eclipse and after going through what seemed like an endless stream of antique malls, I didn't find squat.  So, to find this was refreshing.  Thanks for the comments!

 

-Ski

[Preppy Picker]

1 hour ago, teamski said:

I dropped by Adamstown PA for a couple days on my way to Niagara Falls to watch the eclipse and after going through what seemed like an endless stream of antique malls, I didn't find squat.  So, to find this was refreshing.  Thanks for the comments!

 

-Ski

 

Did you go to any of the outdoor flea markets? 
 

And if you did what were they like? Many dealers? Lots of very old stuff?

 

Thanks

[teamski]

No, just the indoor antique malls.  You just don't find much military stuff.   When you do, it is the typical garbage or overpriced.

 

-Ski

[Preppy Picker]

I set up At Renningers for over 20 years almost every weekend.

 

My experience is that anything worthwhile is gone very early

 

I haven’t been since 2011 but I found some great stuff at 4am.

 

 

[RRA227]

Renningers, Shupps Grove and Black Angus had good stuff. But get there early like all flea markets.  Rich A. in Pa.