[quote]Interesting Chris !! Didn`t know all that !![/quote]

Ah, the “name game” of German makers could fill a book of its own. Take the [i]Edelstein[/i] factory for example which indeed actually named quite a few patterns. The formerly Jewish-owned factory had struck a post-war deal with the Allied Occupation Forces and provided goods for the US PX and UK NAAFI stores. As the soldiers were used to pattern names from home, the company started to add names.

German manufacturers normally avoided that as the names would have to be registered/copyrighted at the foreign market location, which meant an increased personal and financial effort which they avoided by leaving the naming (plus paperwork and fees) up to importers and distributors.

The [i]Edelstein[/i] goods however were sold inside German borders, even if the barracks and military installations were officially non-German territory. So German trademark (but not tax) laws applied, allowing the company to easily register all their designs in bulk applications. If servicemen took the items home (“exported” them), the validity of the trademark and name registration was not affected as the items had been officially created for the domestic market and sold *in* Germany. The only additional reference towards the applied tax status were the applied large V’s found on many items.

Sticking with [i]Edelstein[/i] and their [i]Maria-Theresia[/i] body type, there are multiple flaws in their naming lineup. For example there are two patterns officially named [i]Victoria[/i] (16845 and 21987) and two named [i]Florence[/i] (18019 and 21613), just to name two examples that constantly throw off sellers/buyers … ;).

You can probably guess why I turn down all requests when it comes to “naming” patterns. I just can’t be bothered to run up against windmills, telling people that pattern names in context with German manufacturers are more than useless because most “official” names are exactly NOT official and may vary across the globe (sometimes even between US East- and US West-Coast).

But enough for now, I need more coffee !!! 😉