SS Kratzchen

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The Loch Ness Monster, Abominable Snow Man, Big Foot piece in all this get extremely boring and tiresome.

As a riposte, authentic SS caps that actually existed, have existed, do exist, might exist, and should exist.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Truth be told, Mr. d'Alquen has something even better, and it is quite real: it is the black field cap with the cloth peak, and the early badges Maybe he will grace us with an image, since I do not want to importune him more than I usually do in my ill bred way.

Let us examine real items versus the endless, suffocating cavalcade of fake sludge and silage that crushes all our hopes and burns our minds with such horrid.........j u n k.

[BenVK]

Truth be told, Mr. d'Alquen has something even better, and it is quite real: it is the black field cap with the cloth peak, and the early badges Maybe he will grace us with an image,

Now that would be a Christmas treat to remember!

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Now that would be a Christmas treat to remember!

Maybe he will show it to us again. It is a very nice, sober and evocative piece, which I thought at the time was quite fake, what did I know, then?!

But it is real, and all these stupid fake pictures are only confusing.

[BenVK]

Could we possibly have a winner here? Dave has kindly allowed me to post the photos here.

As additional information, M & G Gompertz of Crefeld/Krefeld certain did exist.

[goodbuys]

F-B,You are 100% correct in your assessment of Manion's Auction House.Back in the late 60's and the 70's i picked up SWORDS, UNIFORMS, VISORS,OVERSEAS CAPS galore and i still have many of those pieces.Ron Manion sold the business and gave the business to Jody Tucker who inherited over a million dollars in debts!Now the junk and garbage that are offered are flea market junk for the most part with a few decent thing thrown in.These new auctions are selling as is, no returns, and the photos are horrible (on purpose i believe)They popup all over the internet and i would advise any newbies to act with caution in bidding on these items as such!! CARL

[Friedrich-Berthold]

F-B,You are 100% correct in your assessment of Manion's Auction House.Back in the late 60's and the 70's i picked up SWORDS, UNIFORMS, VISORS,OVERSEAS CAPS galore and i still have many of those pieces.Ron Manion sold the business and gave the business to Jody Tucker who inherited over a million dollars in debts!Now the junk and garbage that are offered are flea market junk for the most part with a few decent thing thrown in.These new auctions are selling as is, no returns, and the photos are horrible (on purpose i believe)They popup all over the internet and i would advise any newbies to act with caution in bidding on these items as such!! CARL

I got very nice things from Manions, but donkey's years ago. However, there exist sufficient alternatives, which were not operative in the late 1970s as they are today. The pace of all of this today bears no relation to the quaint conditions of anno damals.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Could we possibly have a winner here? Dave has kindly allowed me to post the photos here.

As additional information, M & G Gompertz of Crefeld/Krefeld certain did exist.

Let me say just one thing: the VA SS stamp does not look good to me. However, I will pass on any further assessment. I am somewhat familiar with these stamps, though.

[stonemint]

I believe the hat to be Imperial or (less likely) Weimar. It is not TR, and not SS. Gompertz was a necktie making concern, and may have dabbled in hats. Furthermore, it is highly unlikely that Gompertz met the "Aryan" requirements of the SS (or RZM for that matter).

[BenVK]

I did some research on the Gompertz firm yesterday, quite facinating really. A jewish firm as Chris has pointed out but I'm not sure if that automatically exludes them from making/supplying hats for the Party or SS in the earlier years.

I'm not a fan of the VA SS stamp either but the configuration of the hat does match the one in the photo for example.