| Author | Message | ||
| Suzanne Watson (Suzanne)
New member Username: Suzanne Post Number: 12 Registered: 7-2008 |
Here's an interesting last... does anyone have info about the brand. WW2? Its a swastika symbol with the name "Rebhun Last Co. Cin.O(H?)" I think thats an H after the O... Doesnt have a date on it but theres a model number.   | ||
| Bill Tippit, Sr. (Btippit)
New member Username: Btippit Post Number: 12 Registered: 1-2005 |
Suzanne, I had never heard of this company until you posted the picture. I Googled it and found this interesting biography about one of the members (second generation) of the family who founded the company in 1828. http://www.genealogybug.net/oh_biographies/rebhun. shtml VERY interesting family business. Thanks for bringing this to everyone's attention. Where did you find the last? I'm guessing a yard sale or flea market. As for the swastika, since the company was founded in 1828 and the gentleman's biography appears to be written about 100 years later, I'm sure it had no evil intent. The swastika dates back as far as 1000BC and has been found on artifacts from Troy and other places dating to that period. It has been associated with good and evil over the centuries but will, unfortunately, always live in infamy as the symbol of Nazi Germany. I think I recall seeing overhead pictures of some US military buildings a few years ago that were "accidentally" laid out in the form of a swastika. No one will ever convince me that this symbol didn't jump off the blueprints to SOMEONE before construction began. They have since added some walls to break up the embarrassing shape. Bill “The Last Man Standing” Tippit www.globalfootwearsolutions.com | ||
| Joe Patrickus (Jps_boots)
New member Username: Jps_boots Post Number: 278 Registered: 1-2004 |
How about a childs pair to go along with the lasts. JP  | ||
| Suzanne Watson (Suzanne)
New member Username: Suzanne Post Number: 13 Registered: 7-2008 |
Wow! How unusual! | ||
| Tex Robin (Tex_robin)
Member Username: Tex_robin Post Number: 1753 Registered: 1-2004 |
I think I have some of these lasts with the exact shape but not sure of the symbol. I will look them up... One of these symbols is not the true swastika. If you will look they are different...I am told that there was a symbol like the swastika but with the points turned the other way that some American Indians used.....so one of these, the shoe or the last may not be the Nazi Swastika. Maybe there is something on the internet about it..TR | ||
| Tex Robin (Tex_robin)
Member Username: Tex_robin Post Number: 1754 Registered: 1-2004 |
It seems that the swastika has been around for over 3000 yrs and used for many things...the one on the lasts seems to be going the wrong direction for the Nazi symbol but the one on the shoes looks like the nazi symbol...I didn't read very far but there is a lot on the internet about the symbol.TR | ||
| Bill Tippit, Sr. (Btippit)
New member Username: Btippit Post Number: 13 Registered: 1-2005 |
Joe, where did you get the shoes? Very cool. Tex, yeah I've seen different versions of the swastika in Native American symbols and also Egyptian. I wonder if the variations are just mistakes or efforts to distance a culture from another that may have used the symbol "in vain". The peace symbol associated with the hippie movement of the 60s-70s is the same way. I don't remember the details but I THINK it was used as a symbol by governments, railroads, etc. with slight variations. Of course, there's only so much you can do with geometric symbols like these to distinguish them from one another. Also, it's always interesting to see how different peoples, often separated by vast oceans, can continually have so many similarities in their cultures....symbols, pyramids, foods that cause diarrhea, etc. If you read the Rebhun biography in the link I posted, this was a very successful last company that moved from Albany, NY to Cincinnati, OH and remained successful and even grew. I won't do the research but I wouldn't be surprised if they were eventually bought out by Vulcan, who were headquartered in Cincinnati as was their biggest customer for many years, U.S. Shoe. Those were the days.... It sounds like Lewis James Rebhun was a remarkable man in both business and character, taken suddenly and unexpectedly on his 50th birthday in 1916. Too bad today's corporate leaders don't have the same mindset (meaning good character, not premature death) but that's another topic for another time. Bill “The Last Man Standing” Tippit www.globalfootwearsolutions.com | ||
| Suzanne Watson (Suzanne)
New member Username: Suzanne Post Number: 14 Registered: 7-2008 |
I see the swastikas go in different directions and guess youre right, Tex, in figuring that the last swastika was from an earlier time. Hmm, as a symbol on the last, it speaks to days gone by.... back when an individual could be a great success as a lastmaker in America and a swastika was not bad. Thanks for the bio Bill-- | ||
| Joe Wagg (Joe) New member Username: Joe Post Number: 3 Registered: 3-2009 |
From what I've read, the swastika in it's various forms has been a symbol of good luck. Maybe that's why Hitler chose it. In North America, it was used by the Navajo and other southwest tribes. | ||
| David Rogerson (David_rogerson)
New member Username: David_rogerson Post Number: 13 Registered: 3-2009 |
Scandanavians, English isles, European, Arab, Indian, Asian, American...it's a worldwide symbol and ancient...always used for good fortune (with one exception, unfortunately the most recent)..the swastika is so simple, yet such a strong design. Universal. It generally signifies progress. In Indian culture, the clockwise represents creation, and the counter, sometimes denotes destruction, or renewal. I was at Geronimo's grave as a kid, and was pleased to see the swastika there. Those lasts are an interesting find to be sure. |