Annotated contemporaneously as "German iron  cross taken from the wing of an aeroplane shot down by American forces in France... " and signed by Lieut. Colonel William Henry Harrison Hutton, Jr. whose obituary lists his service in WWI as "Commanding Officer Air Service Production Centre No. 1, Romorantin, France."  At the end of the war, the allies gathered together a large number of Fokker D.VIIs and other German aircraft, such as Pfalz D.XIIs, at Romo, as it was called, and then shipped them as reparations to various countries, including Canada and the United States.  As the CO at Romo, Hutton probably had his pick of souvenirs, like this one.  The cross at about 65 cm x 65 cm is small for a wing cross but the typical size found on the side of fuselages and rudders so it is possibly from the rudder of an S.S.W. D.III or, with the fabric tapes oriented vertically, from the left side of a Rumpler C.IV or C.VII which had vertical rib tapes. The images below show the front and then back of the fabric followed by a close-up of Hutton’s annotation, a closeup of the impression left behind by a fitting of some kind and lastly a photo of his grave at Arlington National Cemetery. Measures 33 in. x 27.5 in.