a black SS officer's cap of early make

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 06-30-2008, 04:30 PM

or this variant...? This one on the left is the very first type, I believe....this is found in a Peter Kupper SS cap of early make. This type of tag is also faked now widely. The Internet has been a mixed blessing in terms of the ability of fakers to duplicate these things.

Addendeum: I added a highly rare variant white tag.....here on the right, with maker of cap so indicated.

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 06-30-2008 04:30 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**Dimas** · 06-30-2008, 11:12 PM

by Friedrich-Berthold

Sir, that is astonishing. I believe this piece was sold by a UK dealer recently at a fraction of this Russian price. The cap in question is a Wille of about 1937 date. If such pieces command such prices in the Russian Federation, then I imagine that they shall swiftly disappear from the US websites. Bruce Herman has one for sale, of slightly later date. You can make a killing....You will recall that a noted US dealer found many stripped black uniforms in the Lenfilm studio at the start of the 1990s. I guess the tide has turned, which is a reflection of the legitimate desire to embrace history on the basis of prosperity

As I'am started my experince with uniforms in the end of 80's I've also got a lot of good stuff from Lenfilm's basements personally, where was a lot of stuff, really a lot of. Now the financial and political position in Russia are changed, and Russia is too big and very good market for the items like that. Unfortunately only just about 2% of the peoples from the RF speaks Englich. Look at the traffic details of one of the famous forums- WA, we get here the second place by visitors- Russia
wehrmacht-awards.com - Traffic Details from Alexa
Now things are changed, the theaters and filmstuduios in Russia and ex-USSR are sold their stuff in mid 90's ( no-no, Lenfilm still has a excelent examples of figures of Czar family, but the items was sent to Lenfilm by Hermitage museum and they are still counted by them, so the stuff like that being guard of UNESCO)
I know personally the guys who keept a lot of stuff from the time of Perestroika in Russia...

I think for 20000 US you can find a great black SS uniforms set

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 06-30-2008, 11:29 PM

To the colleague in Estonia, many thanks for the interesting description and details. I appreciate your insights and time offered. I am sure that Mr. Coleman and Hritz will agree with me how astonishing has been the transformation of the Nazi regalia market since the situation in the US and Germany of the 1950s and 1960s. This matter has been commented on endlessly on the WAF, as you know. I think it is especially fitting that Russians are able to take such an interest in European military history and its regalia. Did any of the Lenfilm pieces retain all their insignia? The ones I saw were stripped, but quite authentic all the same. Thanks again. Enclosed a black uniform of Czech origin gotten by a US GI near Pilzen (Saaz) in the spring of 1945 and found in a "motel buy." This piece is distinct from the Baarandov pieces found during the cold war and immediately thereafter.

Rich Moran · 07-02-2008, 09:26 AM

It is now becoming apparent that collecting SS items is at a top that many have not thougth would come so soon. My thoughts are like any over inflated commodity, that a collapse in prices soon follows. The unknown here is the fact that as the world economy outside the US/EU develops in depth that perhaps that top is only an intermediate plateau that soon will be eclipsed by again rising prices.

Seeing prices of double decal heer helmets going where they are is crazy, and now seeing this with the A-SS NCO visor makes one take pause and wonder aloud when the physciatrist willl arrive!

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 07-03-2008, 03:03 AM

The one constant seems to be an enduring interest in the second world war, especially in areas of the world that have been deeply marked by the event. In the second instance, as one who lived through the stagflation of the 1970s and the appreciation of the price of SS regalia in said remote time, signs indicate a similar process today. While red Italian sports cars and other objects or subjects of fashion have ebbed and flowed, I think SS regalia represents something much more profound: the forces of nationalism and war in European history in an extreme form. The issues of market forces and the mechanism of price are secondary to the goal of knowledge about this material and its preservation. If the stuff is an investment in the sense of speculation and the odd idea of markets and what not in the last twenty years, then this aspect is secondary to its intrinsic historical value.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 07-05-2008, 03:52 AM

another cap or two of note....and some varia. The cap on the right was worn by an officer in the SS Totenkopfverbaende, though a researcher attributed it to an interesting figure in the Allgemeine SS with a similar name. This kind of mix up is fairly typical and argues for one doing one's own research with great care.

**jim arrasmith** · 07-05-2008, 12:17 PM

Friedrich, here is my white tag from my e.m. Visor

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 07-05-2008, 12:53 PM

by jim arrasmith

Friedrich, here is my white tag from my e.m. Visor

Dear Sir. Yours is the same as the Isken marked tag in post # 10. These tags seem to date from the era 1935/6, as near as I can tell. This tag is found in other NSDAP kinds of headwear, as well. Is the sweatband of your cap marked with a date? I have seen images of your cap on dealers' websites. A pleasing example. greetings, FB

Addendum: collectors should be especially alert to the highly refined fakes of black other ranks SS caps of later make, i.e. with black RZM tags. Due to the years of us naive souls posting excellent images, the fake caps have become more accurate in their details. Please note: Mr. Arrasmith's cap is wholly authentic. I am sorry that I do not have the resources to decipher the maker's license number on this tag.

**Dimas** · 07-05-2008, 01:11 PM

As I seen myself, fakes are still can be easily recognized by holding them in the hands...

**jim arrasmith** · 07-05-2008, 02:23 PM

Thank you friedrich. You've got me digging through my old pics too. My em visor came from from steve wolf a few years ago. He got it from a wisconsin vet. I'm going to make another post here with an ss oberjunker visor. They got these at ss schools and when they got so far in the program and knew they would graduate, they gave them their silver braid for the hat, but no velvet, until after graduation. I bought it from bruce herman and then sold it back to bruce a year later. These are all the pics i have left of it, but it has a brown tag in it. I'm going to post it now in this same forum.