Authenticating Your Walter Bosse Hedgehog Ashtrays: Types of Baby Hedgehogs

Walter Bosse vintage brass stacking hedgehog ashtray babies with black patina and polished gold highlights

Over my years of collecting, I have come across hundreds of Walter Bosse’s hedgehog ashtrays. Initially I mostly saw the two most common baby hedgehogs in the set: 1) the X leg baby and 2) the fully formed legs baby. But recently I’ve found  3 more rare variations: 1) the single bar leg baby, 2) […]

Walter Bosse Fakes – A History of the Greek Hedgehog Ashtrays

Made In Greece Fake Vintage Hedgehog Ashtray

After finding of one of these “Made in Greece” stamped hedgehog ashtrays with a photo of a box, I figured it was time to do an updated post. Let’s start with the basics. This hedgehog ashtray is made of a white metal, probably a zinc based metal alloy with an applied antiqued patina in a […]

Walter Bosse Fakes – A History of 1МПЗ Russian Hedgehog Ashtrays

Russian Hedgehog Ashtray Fakes

It has taken me almost 8 years of research until I finally made a break in this case 3 days ago. I have focused mainly on authenticating the Walter Bosse hedgehog ashtrays, but I thought I should turn my attention to researching the origins of this forgery. It all started with someone mentioned that they […]

Authenticating Your Walter Bosse Hedgehog Ashtrays: All the Fakes

Collage of 4 Hedgehog Ashtray Fakes

As the years go by I am astounded at the number of different fake sets I’ve been finding. The two main ones you will often find are of course the Greek and Russian sets but there are SO many others out there that I didn’t expect. Some of them seem pretty small batch or handmade, […]

Authenticating Your Walter Bosse Hedgehog Ashtrays: Curious Cases – Steel & Ferrous Metal

Walter Bosse Steel Hedgehogs

I recently came across a few strange metal hedgehog sets and was surprised to find that they were all highly magnetic! That is a trait shared only by ferrous metals, or metal with iron in them. So I figured I should put a post together and talk about all their curious traits and how I […]

Authenticating Your Walter Bosse Hedgehog Ashtrays: Part 3 – All the Hedgehogs!

Walter Bosse Hedgehog Ashtrays

Lately I’ve noticed some confusion when it comes to authenticating Walter Bosse hedgehog ashtrays. Whether you own a set already and want to check them or are looking to possibly buy a set of your own and want to make sure it’s real and not fake, I thought it would be good to clarify some […]

Authenticating Your Walter Bosse Hedgehog Ashtrays: Part 2 – Rare Models and Marks

Walter Bosse Rare Hedgehogs, Stickers and Markings

Hi everyone! First off, I want to thank everyone for taking the time to educate themselves on authentic Walter Bosse hedgehogs and fake ones. When I first started off doing this, the fake Russsian and Aeroflot hedgehog ashtrays were selling for more than Bosse’s originals because everyone was incorrectly attributing those logos to him. Since […]

UPDATE Authenticating Your Walter Bosse Hedgehog Ashtrays: How to Spot the Differences

Walter Bosse Hedgehog Ashtray Authentication Guide

A bit of history on Walter Bosse’s hedgehog ashtrays: At the end of 1952, Walter Bosse moved from Austria, where he lived since his birth in 1904, to Western Germany. He settled in the area of Iserlohn, because creditors were chasing him and his friends and business partners were cheating him. He wanted to concentrate […]