Please feel free to share your views M40 cap

[busman]

any thoughts please. sorry for picture quality but all i have is my iphone. Dated 1942 i can make out HAMBURG on the ink stamp,

[Nigel Lesgate]

I think a fake Willy Sprengpfeil (?) trop cap. Strange too, nothing adds up on this one.

[busman]

Could you be more specific with your comments. What does not add up ?. Looking for constructive comments . I.E is the stitching good/bad material right or wrong . I know pics aren't great but any more info would be good, and if you have examples in your collection to compare that would be great. Many thanks Tim

[SteveR]

I am suspicious of the grommet rust. Why hasn't it discolored the surrounding material. It appears to be chemically induced.
I really do not get warm fuzzys from it.

[busman]

Thankyou for the reply, on the exterior of the cap where the ferrous metal part of the grommet meets the material there is staining, especially in the crease around the grommet , not showing well in the pics though,also on the red material where the cap has been folded a circular stain has been left by one of the grommets on the opposite side where it has been touching on storage. The red material has a small amount of white staining from corrosion from the zinc. To be honest I thought the grommets looked very similar in state of corrosion to others I have seen on this forum. I'm certainly not saying you are wrong , if it is wrong I have a good chance of taking it back , but I don't want to return it if it is a good one and at the moment i am still confident it has a chance of being ok. It's been messed with a bit where someone has tried to reattach the insignia to the front , there are stitch marks in a triangular shape over the original and same for the cockade . Again many thanks for the replys ,still trying to make my mind up on this one.

[Nigel Lesgate]

Could you be more specific with your comments. What does not add up ?. Looking for constructive comments . I.E is the stitching good/bad material right or wrong . I know pics aren't great but any more info would be good, and if you have examples in your collection to compare that would be great. Many thanks Tim

I see issues with the outside wear compared to inside, the removal of insignia reveals the actual cap color, which looks strange, and that insignia I think was repro. The grommets, as pointed out, are odd and the oddest might be-- there appears to be no seam in the lining in the back of the cap. The cap does appear nicely made and has a good profile. I would like a better shot of the makers inkstamp....there are alot of bogus Sprengpfeil's out there.

[busman]

I will upload pictures of the rear seam inside the cap,and of the ink stamp, I'm afraid colours look slightly off to the actual colour due to poor photo on my phone.

[Nigel Lesgate]

This cap shows no signs of ever having been worn. Also, they started getting sweatbands in '42. I think someone tried to doll up a repro in a way to make it look like an original stripped cap. Only my 2 cents.

[busman]

In your hand you can see good signs of wear and sweat stains especially around the forehead area, the guy I acquired it from has had it in his collection for 7 years and felt it was good as do I, I have owned a lot of ww1 and ww2 head gear and the feel the wear and smell are all consistent with it not being a Dolled up repro . The construction look good to me also , I will keep this one in my collection with a good degree of confidence. Thankyou for your valid points and constructive comments , that's the reason I like this forum.