black SS officer caps, leather peaks

[Friedrich-Berthold]

as noted.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The cap right foreground was derided on another site as a fake.

Some foreground; some site; some fake.

!

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The truth is, in the case of the ex Mollo, ex Chapman cap and this new arrival, I had to restore the birdie because of the sloth and neglect of others.

In the case of the ex Mollo cap, a personage had broken off the original and replaced it with a fake. This cap is pictured in the Saris Vol. IV

In the case of the new cap, the transport of same had broken of the spints of the Hoheitszeichen, as well.

This needless destruction and expense arises from maker mania as it renders the collector an hysteric, as if the maker of a badge really meant something.

I am deliberately provoking some here, but those people also willfully and reckless destroy authentic artifacts, doing huge damage to all concerned.

I got significant price reductions on these caps because they are no longer historically intact.

PS This is an image of the Mollo cap in a well known collection of an expert in the last decade. It was still intact, then.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Collecting these things can bring great satisfaction, but the collateral damage of collector insecurity as well as the overemphasis on incidental details constitute a real pain in the a$$.

[harryamb2]

F-B,I believe I once had that cap on my head,about 1959 when I knew Andrew.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

F-B,I believe I once had that cap on my head,about 1959 when I knew Andrew.

Donnerwetter. I met him in 1971 and bought books from him, but he did not show me his collection.

Thanks.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

F-B,I believe I once had that cap on my head,about 1959 when I knew Andrew.

I have a copy of the letter from Mollo ca. 1983 offering this item for sale. Discretion prohibits me from showing it here. The cap sold for very little money, indeed.

I am glad to know that Mollo owned this cap as long ago as 1959.

[harryamb2]

F-B Andrew also collected Italian, Japanese items,swords uniforms etc I have never ever seen so much Axis stuff,uniforms, weapons, equipment,medals badges.simply amazing.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

F-B Andrew also collected Italian, Japanese items,swords uniforms etc I have never ever seen so much Axis stuff,uniforms, weapons, equipment,medals badges.simply amazing.

Bravo. He collected in a simpler, more forthright era. I recall buying a Bavarian infantry helmet with brass fittings in London in 1969, and it was a great treasure. The same summer I met him there in 1971, I bought
a wonderful Lubstein Pz officer peaked cap in Portobello Road for USD 37. All long gone. Mollo was a young man, then, all of thirty years old, and I was eighteen years old.

I guess nostalgia is an irritating thing for the younger set, but they have the right and duty to be thus when their time comes. Had I know what I would eventually collect in this material, I would never have believed it.

Thanks for your additions here. I always enjoy them greatly.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

F-B Andrew also collected Italian, Japanese items,swords uniforms etc I have never ever seen so much Axis stuff,uniforms, weapons, equipment,medals badges.simply amazing.

You also know that with Kevin Brownlow in the late 1950s and into the early 1960s, the two persons made a dramatic film about the German occupation of Great Britain, which is still famous.

I was raised on British films of the era. All somehow vanished into this odd and confusing 21st century where I feel the complete alien.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K08vBvJO5gM


Thanks to this effort much of what we do is here, since, Mollo's creative energy also led to the books, which got us all going in the right direction.