Super Rare 1912 Imperial Russian Pilot Uniform

[stuka f]

....and is that a Belgian bull's eye we can see behind the uniforme?

[hawk3370]

....and is that a Belgian bull's eye we can see behind the uniforme?

Stuka,
Not Belgian, French roundel off a WW1 French plane. Brought back by a RFC pilot.
Terry

[stuka f]

amazing!!

[jaba1914]

This is an amazing group. I never seen a uniform of an early russian pilot. Great.

Regards Alex

[Vodorosl]

I don't want to rain on anybody's parade and this might sound bad coming from a person who just registered, but unfortunately this uniform is one of fakes being sold on Ebay by a russian guy - Dmitriy Panaev. We can discuss further if anyone else is interested.

[ccj]

Who is this Dmitry and where does he live?

[Vodorosl]

He is a seller of fake russia items. I think he lives somewhere in or around Boston.
These are three of his seller profiles on Ebay, where he sells fakes, if you search on the items currently being sold by the first profile, it's obvious that all of them are faked imperial and early soviet items. He also uses two other profiles to possibly bid on his own lots and to up his rating.
WW1 RUSSIAN CZAR IMPERIAL GENERAL PARADE SHAKO CAP HAT - eBay (item 120646572064 end time Dec-12-10 08:00:16 PST)
1939 RUSSIAN USSR LOTTERY ARMY NAVY AIRFORCE DESIGN - eBay (item 250319673407 end time Dec-23-10 12:40:05 PST)
18c RUSSIAN IMPERIAL GUARD CAVALRY SABER SWORD BLADE - eBay (item 370291979188 end time Dec-11-10 12:55:01 PST)
And here's his website, where once again he's fishing for new collectors with fake items:
Tsars Arsenal - Russian orthodox icons, Imperial awards, swords, sabres, dirks, daggers, uniforms, orders, medals, badges

[davejb]

Well ive just looked at this guys site and i would agree that some of these items are dubious however other items are exremely well made and i would think that his operation must be very large in order to produce the almost museum quality items that are displayed, saying that , because of the huge amount of detail and the near perfect condition of some of the items i would say its entirely possible that he could be a very experienced recreator of old imperial items, but as for the item shown in this thread i am in no way experienced to say that it is a fake and i would take the advice of the experts on this forum as to authenticity, and i would hope that it is genuine as i believe its a rare beast that has rarely been seen

[hawk3370]

Vodorosi,
I appreciate your observation however, this particular uniform was acquired from a private collector a number of years ago, long before e-bay started being flooded with Imperial Russian uniforms and badges. With that being said, I am in no way an authority on Imperial Russian uniforms but have handled a number of WW1 aviator uniforms from various countries mostly the US, and after receiving the uniform and close inspection of all aspects of it, I could find nothing that sent up any flags. That is the beauty of this forum, many eyes and lots of opinions to enhance one's education.
Terry

[Steven M]

I don't want to rain on anybody's parade and this might sound bad coming from a person who just registered, but unfortunately this uniform is one of fakes being sold on Ebay by a russian guy - Dmitriy Panaev. We can discuss further if anyone else is interested.

Hello and welcome.

While I always respect differing points of views regarding originality, I think we must be careful in judging such rare items (or any other item) by only seeing a few distant photos on line. It isn't possible to validate such a statement without having the item in hand; especially when it comes to the exceedingly rare.

I would add that Major Morris has been in the aviation collecting arena longer than many of us have been alive, so with 50+ years of experience, I tend to think that he knows enough to avoid getting stung by an ebay knock-off. I said all that to say this, please be careful when declaring an item as fake without rock-solid proof. We are always open to discussion, but let's be a bit more methodical when making such declarations.