I concur with the minority who believe this may be a late war cap. As requested, please provide further information and pictures.
BOB
LIFE'S LOSERS NEVER LEARN FROM THE ERROR OF THEIR WAYS.
Last edited by Friedrich-Berthold; 12-24-2015 at 05:16 AM.
Additional photos
Merry Christmas gentles!
Thanks. I would say the thing is real, since this grey ersatz sweat band nicely matches the underside of the peak, and the peak is not lacquered very well.
The lousy lacquer is typical of just this very later production cap.
I do not think the thing was used very much.
I could tell if I had it in hand, but I think it is real.
Merry Christmas.
Don't ask me how much it is worth.
I do not follow such things all that much.
Thanks for the additional pictures.
While the Adler may be a somewhat poor example, it doesn't look that bad, and also... real ones are easily available all the time, so why would a faker who wants to add a zero to the price of a repro stick a poor copy of an Adler on to raise doubts when the genuine article can be had for $30.
The poor Adler alone gives it a strong chance for me, unless the whole thing is/was an older repro from a time before when such things were easily available on the net.
The piping above the cockade certainly is a little wavy, not the best work, but who knows, maybe bombs were falling at the time, no food, no sleep, etc...
I wonder if carbon testing can be used on something this new?
Then there is the UV light tests, and new threads and materials really GLOW!
I would recommend anyone who delves into these "foetid woolens" as FB affectionately calls them buy a cheap (or expensive) black light to give items this check. Very inexpensive, and very conclusive.
Between FB and myself, we have over 100 years of collecting experience. We have handled and studied thousands of visor caps, many in the days before everything was being faked. The quality of these late war hats in both materials and workmanship was due to war shortages of material and induction of workers in to military service. It is likely many hats were worked on by either prisoners or forced labor from the occupied countries. The key to originality of these is if they are still basically manufactured in the same manner as pre or early war hats.l There is a knee jerk reaction by newer collectors to label anything not "textbook" as fake, which is not always the case. I still consider this to be a genuine late war cap. In the early 1970's, I purchased a similar hat directly from a veteran in Joliet, Illinois. The cap was piped in transport blue and had an edelweiss between the national emblem and the wreath indicating attachment to a gebergsjaeger division. Wherever that hat is today, few would recognize it as being period original due to both the construction and the insignia.
BOB
LIFE'S LOSERS NEVER LEARN FROM THE ERROR OF THEIR WAYS.
Well said and bravo, and Merry Christmas to you and yours, as well.
This cap is a wartime Lubstein, and it is not nearly as well made as one from, say, 1938 or 1939.....i.e. in peace time.
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