1935 wooden propellor

[myloeric]

found in garage of polish war hero, dated June 1935.
DRG No. D.H. 5220/B/13
left hand
diameter 6' 4"
also marked B8571.

made of cherry/walnut (I think) with brass.

Is it worth anything or is it for the trash?

[MWP_Lamar]

I have no idea what its usage was but I can assure you it isn't trash.

Lamar

[Bob Gardner]

Good Morning Myloeric,

Welcome to our forum.

Your prop is from one of the 1930's de havilland Moths; the DH60 Gipsy Moth, DH 80 Puss Moth, DH 82 Tiger Moth, or the DH 83 Fox Moth. All were powered by the Gipsy III engine.

It might be that the Polish ace acquired it from one of these aircraft in the RAF. The date of 1935 implies that it came from a civilian aircraft and several civilian Moths were recruited into the RAF during WW2 as communications aircraft.

Although the Tiger Moth was famously used as the RAF's basic trainer, these came into RAF use after 1935.

The prop is probably made of walnut where one lamination has a lighter colour than the others.

Its value at auction is about 200 GBP, about 350 USD, but if offered for sale as the property of your Polish ace, this might double the value.

If you live in the UK and wish to sell it, my advice would be to put it into a specialist auction and if you e-mail me (aeroclocks at btinternet dot com), written in this way to evade the spam bots, I'll be able to tell you those I recommend.

With kind regards,

Bob

[Bob Gardner]

Postscript; Please tell us who the Polish ace was.

Bob

[myloeric]

Thanks for all the information. The man who owned it was Major Tadeusz Ruman, he passed away in May last year, we bought his house and found the propeller left in the garage, it is such a well made item with alot of history.
I have done a little research online and found a lot of interesting information on Major Ruman, mainly from polish sites and it seems to have given the propeller alot more meaning.
The propeller must have taken pride of place on his living room wall but has unfortunately been cut away to house a clock, other than that it is in near perfect condition.
After reading your reply about the GYPSEY III planes I realised that the words on the propeller that were partly worn away do say 'GYPSEY III'.
I will probably sell the prop if it is still worth anything with the damage from the clock and will contact you directly soon.