Article about: Although not conclusive, I have highlighted some possible areas of concern. The one shown appears to be an RZM one O/R, I would have thought that it would be a flatwire type? Personally, the
But I don't mind admitting it on here, that's what makes this forum so different. No one is out to make a name for themselves. I know it's been said before, but just to reiterate............. We're all opinionated........................ in a good sense that is
So much of this Waffen SS stuff is presto chango and the images posted here nothing more than the reflections of a fun house hall of mirrors, really. I tire of it nearly as much as the stupid nightmare of the "scull" cap badges. The truth is that the computer images often show essentially nothing. Especially with this alu wire embroidery material with fuzzy, intermediate distance shots and what not.
The Waffen SS field tunics and especially the Panzer Feljacken (I cannot bring myself to use the word "wrapper..." since it is US argot...) are also cursed for their circular, unending tendency to make people batty.
I now have bought the rest of the Beaver books, and I am not sure what they add up to, other than these three volumes are a Querschnitt of existing pieces in north America. That is, a random sample of the tiny number of extant pieces from the whole, which we will never know. In their totality, the volumes are confusing because there is no organizational context, and the arrangement of the existing pieces strikes me a very arbitrary to some code that does not make sense to me. At the same time, there is interesting, important material, but these Schiffer people have no editorial process whatsoever and no effort is made to think of the needs of the reader or how the thing makes sense. The Mollo books make much more sense, even if they made small errors and were less comprehensive by the standards of the present.
In the meantime, I bought further volumes from the Bavarian war museum, reference I made earlier, which treats field grey German army uniforms from 1907 until 1918. These volumes are so well done as to put all this Schiffer stuff into deep, deep shame. The latter works are comprehensive, complete, authoritative and do set the mark pretty high indeed.
There is a much higher standard of knowledge in this SS material, but, "....you cannot get there from here..." as they say in the US Army, because the burden of ignorance is simply too great and the dogma of "textbook" so suffocates knowledge.
One can only generalize about these grey items, especially, with a closest inspection in hand. As a rule of thumb, I look with strongest skepticism on all grey SSVT and SSTV uniforms in very good condition with improbable insignia configurations.
The old question "qui bono?" applies here, that is, who profits? and plainly it is those who prey of the fairly unlimited desire---especially of novice collectors---to own very rare SS regalia, without the insight and knowledge necessary for same. In saying this, I do not want to engage in dealer smashing, which I think unhelpful, since I think all sides bear a considerable measure of responsibility for this supply and demand deformation of this biotope.
By the way, did anyone buy that nice field cap for an officer with red piping in Germany?
Well, as regards the "DF" piece, someone surely went to the trouble of getting a kind of Austrian tailored piece with the quasi KuK pockets, which would not be out of place for a unit garrisoned in the neighborhood of Schoenbrunn. I have been in said Kaserne several times, actually.
But I shall leave the inquisition on such a piece to others.
There are others here with sharper eyes than mine.
These are all fairly senior ranked Waffen SS personages, and thus need triple scrutiny.
I couldnt say for sure but the SS arm eagles could be made by jewish tailors in one of the camps as so often done .The SS rune with the numeral 3 looks genuine as it matches one which i was able to view and handle personally the other day.They again were sometimes made with templates in the camps ,therefore it stands to reason that these items could differ in manufacture, and the degree of workmanship. Really the only true way to tell is if they are marked on the reverse, ie camp abbrieviations or paper tagged
The bullion insignia was never produced by camps. That is quality embroidery work which need special skills. Most of the embroidery made at the south of Germny in the Weissenburg area, where that kind of job is very popular. I don't know about the SS insignia. But as I have spoked with the one guy who still has a lot of insignia, his father was in the cotract with army in the war time, and work for them, his firm was made different insignia, but the workers was just the farmer's wifes who sits at home and make the embroidery for him, over a couple of weeks he've made a round trip and collect the patches...
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