SS TV tab

**tempelhof** · 06-21-2013, 10:51 PM

i looked at this tab when you first posted it.

these things are pricey and the fakes can appear quite good to the relatively inexperienced eye. there is nothing wrong, and everything right, with putting these things up for comment and review before buying them.

i don't have anything like the experience of some here such as Robert H., Friedrich-Berthold and Bob Coleman.

still, to my eye (although I avoided making comment knowing what talents greater than mine would weigh in soon enough), the problem is in the embroidery and this is usually a pretty good tell with these tabs. the shape and definition of the embroidered features are wrong. there are places where the thread count is lower than at least what i have observed in these tabs. this makes, to me, for a tab whose features are looser and less defined. that was my personal take on its appearance.

the only way to gain competency with these is to look VERY critically at authentic tabs. there are many here on the forum. you have to study these things in great detail and pay attention to the smallest variances. i'm a biologist and sometimes looking at these tabs i feel that were i not, i'd see less detail than i do. so i really am talking about something here greater than just "seeing" them. still, the learning curve is long and it is steep and i have a long way to go. i have owned them, i have seen the tabs of others, and i have seen countless images here and of those of trustworthy collectors over the years. it is an arduous thing but you keep at it and you learn.

i don't know what will become of your tab. perhaps you will recover what losses you have. but it is not worthless as it stands. keep it (if that is your best option) and know it well. it will make you a more discriminating collector. and that's something we're all after.

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 06-21-2013 10:51 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 06-22-2013, 06:23 PM

You have to examine and own real material so that its appearance and essence versus that of the counterfeit is a matter of reflex. I live with my collection, and look at the embroidery every day, whereby the patina, and other features of same become a matter of second nature. The sole use of the magic screen here as some ultima ratio is a dead end.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 06-22-2013, 06:32 PM

The other piece is the formation through appropriate behavior of links to those handful of people who know the truth and might be willing to share it with a beginner. This circle is a small one and getting smaller, I think granted the burden of keeping up good order and discipline here so that many can learn.
This challenge is often too great for many who imbibe the heady behavior of this odd century and thereby cannot comport themselves well in this medium, they defeat themselves at the outset.
To put it bluntly: if you act like a fool here, no one will help you. It is not as if someone has paid me a fair wage for my 11,000 plus posts or shared the burden of the purchase of a very costly collection.
Finally, I own a couple of pieces of SSTV regalia, and claim little expertise in it beyond its general traits as SS insignia of a general type.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 06-22-2013, 06:38 PM

I paid for this without much charity from beyond.....

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 06-22-2013, 06:39 PM

...and this commitment of more than four decades is quite different than a half hour of clicks on a half dozen websites.....

**tempelhof** · 06-23-2013, 02:21 AM

Friedrich-Berthold touches on a very, very important point for any collector and for the beginner even more so: there are vastly talented and experienced collectors here who spend an incredibly generous amount of their time engaged in what must sometimes seem to them a task more thankless than it should. these collectors handle questions (very often the same ones) day after day and year after year. i have seen many of these answers given without thanks. no one has to stay here and certainly in the staying, no one has to work as hard as they do.

yet, here they are.

it is incumbent upon us who wish to learn something, that we treat this resource and these people with care and respect. it is a gift.

i spent some years working on top a hill built from rubble in a the middle of a forest in Berlin. in this highly secretive and murky facility (Teufelsberg), we had a saying when every other reference failed (and we did responsibly use them all first): "people are your best resource".

and there, as here, you got a lot out of treating that resource with care.

just thoughts that come to mind as i read Friedrich-Berthold's words.

here he posts in addition to words, great examples of original embroidered tabs and other insignia. his postings are a great place to start.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 06-23-2013, 02:47 AM

Thank you, colleague. I miss Berlin a lot, as I am now deprived of my life there.
A handful of us keep going because there are some deserving young souls here who warrant it, and because such knowledge deserves preservation, too.
The lack of thanks from many has taken its toll of my patience, however.
We lost Hritz, as an example, whom I trust with embroidery, but he decamped elsewhere.
But we gained Delich, who is the master of all as concerns embroidery and things, and that's a great plus.
Thanks for your kind aid, dear Tempelhof.

und wegen Berlin, folgendes zu schauen.....

Kleiner Bummel durch Berlin - Ein Film von Berliner Denkmaelern im Volkshumor (1932) - YouTube

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 06-23-2013, 03:12 AM

Do let me also say that Adrian and Bob set fine examples of forbearance which normally is totally beyond me, and my either Hohenzollern or Habsburg training enjoins me to emulate such an example.
Otherwise, I am really prone to tantrums and fits.

**ObKrieger** · 06-23-2013, 03:15 AM

FB, do you have any scraps of black cloth laying around? Perhaps it would be interesting to send some around, if you or anyone else have some. That way we could all get past the dead end you mentioned. Just an idea...

**ObKrieger** · 06-23-2013, 03:19 AM

by Friedrich-Berthold

Thank you, colleague. I miss Berlin a lot, as I am now deprived of my life there.
A handful of us keep going because there are some deserving young souls here who warrant it, and because such knowledge deserves preservation, too.
The lack of thanks from many has taken its toll of my patience, however.

I am sure that I speak for many of us when I say that your work here is greatly appreciated, and that it never goes unnoticed. Your posts are a focal point of this forum.

Berlin is a lovely town. I have family there, so I get to visit every once in a while.