This September
Rock Island Auction Company is proud to offer museum quality military collectables from the Putnam Green Collection. This fantastic collection spans two world wars and features some of the best American and German military collectables Rock Island Auction has ever offered. This article will focus on the U.S. World War I collectables of the Putnam Green collection. Writing for the Military Trader and Military Vehicles Magazine blog the JAG File on February 23,2011, the magazine editor John Adam-Graf notes a rise in the popularity of World War I collecting (
See article here). A renewal in World War I collecting has turned to robbing French military museums. At the Verdun Memorial 40 of the museum’s most valuable objects were stolen and there were other robberies at Fort Vauz and Fort de la Falouse. The director of the Verdun Memorial referred to the robberies as “stealing to order”, believing that collectors had become thieves or collectors had hired others to steal for them. While the French have possibly tuned to theft to meet collecting demands, here in the United States the renewal of World War I collecting is less dramatic, but are on the rise. As the 95th anniversary of America’s entry into the war approaches, “collecting has surged—both in the numbers who collect and the prices being paid.” Material that has taken the lead in desirability have included aviation, Tank Corps, uniform groupings, weapons and helmets, and examples from each category are featured in the Putnam Green collection this September.
