Allgemeine SS Visor Cap

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 07-12-2013, 07:17 PM

Thanks. May I say that a generous colleague and pillar here allowed me to photograph said object in the pitiful company of my things.

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 07-12-2013 07:17 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**DrCMH** · 07-12-2013, 07:21 PM

It is a splendid item and I see it is in good company with your tasteful collection. Perhaps, one day, it could join your collection on a more permanent basis. It looks...at home.

Regards,

CMH

P.S. Our thanks to the kind owner for allowing the photos for us to enjoy.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 07-12-2013, 07:22 PM

Attachment 537729

The merits of this piece of my colleague for my brief examination are many: a.) it is a real black SS senior leader's cap, which is saying a lot; b.) it is from a fine Munich firm from which I have never seen an officer's cap, save a senior officer's cap; c.) the piece as a relic is perfect, that is, it is a fine state of preservation, but plainly from 1936-7 and all its elements have a wonderful patina; d.) it is not a Sonderanfertigung, i.e. with the light lining and runes, but it is of a date when the fancy model had been dropped, i.e. 1937; e.) the RZM tag fits with others of its date; f.) the cap is made on the level of the Sonderanfertigung, i.e. cap cover, and lining--it is nicer than the average black officer's cap of similar date; f.) the side buttons are the nickle and pebbled form of SS buttons, though I did not pry off the Kordel to see if the buttons are marked, but the buttons are not alu; g.) the thing has not been abused by collectors, but well cared for.....h.) it has wonderful badges, which have most of their finish and also a patina identical to the rest of the cap. The only damage is the dissolution of a couple of the alu. threads in the piping, but such a thing is really very minor. I am not a collector who insists that items look as if they sprung out of the box. Such an attitude is naive and also somehow negates the past, whereas we accept that a piece has age.

a real gem.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 07-12-2013, 07:26 PM

by DrCMH

It is a splendid item and I see it is in good company with your tasteful collection. Perhaps, one day, it could join your collection on a more permanent basis. It looks...at home.

Regards,

CMH

P.S. Our thanks to the kind owner for allowing the photos for us to enjoy.

I associate myself with the above. We are grateful to this cap's owner for his expansion of our horizons in which 99% of such things are fakes.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 07-12-2013, 08:39 PM

A comparison of the Mueller Sonderanfertigung cap at the head of this thread and the piece I am examining......and which my generous colleague has furnished me for just this inquiry.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 07-12-2013, 08:40 PM

The Breiter 1937 cap.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 07-12-2013, 08:44 PM

Then and now.....

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 07-12-2013, 08:48 PM

Notice how the silk or imitation silk, but I think silken interior, reflects light and also the Plessier, i.e. the expert way the lining is folded, a craft in itself.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 07-12-2013, 08:52 PM

Notice how the cap buttons correspond to the tunic buttons of the epoch....this feature contrasts with military buttons, and is the type found on SA and SS uniforms of the early-ish epoch.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 07-12-2013, 08:55 PM

Fifty years had to pass before I could examine a piece of this rarity and excellence, and the insights garnered along this twisted path I share happily with our readers in the hope that they can also embrace real material.