Two Civil War Bugles -- NOT!

Ralph Heinz

Corporal
Joined
Feb 14, 2016
Location
Pacific Northwest
It seems to happen with regularity. In the last week, two bugles were sold as Civil War bugles on eBay. One from Gen. Lee was a triple coil brass bugle with a nickel plated mouthpiece. It had a tiny piece of paper stuck to it that had "Lee" printed on it meaning it was from a former Gettysburg museum. To begin with CW bugles were not made with three coils and none had nickel plated mouth pieces. These are found on bugles made decades after the CW -- most likely in the 1890's. It brought $511 plus considerable shipping charges. It points out the fact that you can't consider something authentic just because it was once in a museum of CW artifacts. The people running the private museum may have been deceived themselves or simply wanted something to display. That bugle is worth about $50 and similar ones not advertised as Civil War on eBay have not sold as there is no interest in them.

The second bugle sold this last week was advertised as Civil War but was actually a WWII Japanese Army brass bugle complete with three coils -- one of which had 2 rings soldered to it to attach a carrying cord to. It also had a thumb screw tightener for the mouth piece and the mouth piece was a large thick affair. It also had Japanese red cords on it. It's highly recognized as WWII Japanese but someone paid $390.01 for it. At least shipping was free. Another WWII Japanese bugle on eBay has been unsold for months for $150. A good friend of mine has one of these complete with the red carrying cords he took as a souvenir after the Battle of The IaDrang in Viet Nam. The North Vietnamese were using these WWII Japanese bugles as they assaulted the 1st Cav. troopers. See the Mel Gibson movie on this battle though it won't show you any bugles. The Japanese occupied Viet Nam and a lot of their equipment stayed there after WWII.

I guess you could call that last one a Vietnamese Civil War bugle!

Who are these collectors who spend so much money on things they blindly accept as Civil War simply because someone lists it as such?
 
Caveat emptor or my favorite "A Fool And His Money Are Soon Parted" I send these yahoos emails and report them to ebay for what good that does. Below is one I just posted from a guy that didn't last long here with his attitude. Maybe we need a forum just for this?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/264199488189?ul_noapp=true
 
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