Early Allgemeine SS NCO's Kepi

[Arran]

Hello Folks,
Although I have examined this cap personally and found it to be IMHO a rare early original, the owner has asked me to post it here for further comments. If any of our members own similar items, please post them also!

Cheers,
Arran.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Arran, if you endorse something, I embrace your view. The key is how the piping is made and how it is attached.
Did you show it to your fellow Canadian there with you, and, Bob Coleman is my person to go to on these items, actually.
I will pass it to Delich, too, if you want.

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Is there some provenance?

[Arran]

Hi F-B, thanks for your response. The piping was definitely added after the cap was complete, and is tacked on through the lining, although it shows every sign of having been in place from the period, and I suppose reflects a promotion. I'm not aware of the provenance of the cap, other than that it has recently passed from an old collection to my friend...

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I rely on you as the ultima ratio in so many advanced things and I have had ample chance to partake of the excellence of your taste and skill as a senior most collector.
So, if you are pleased, then so am I. I would just compare the piping to other extant examples of SS piping of the epoch, which, as you know,
are a challenge. I assume this would be actually for a junior officer, but I rely on Wim and Bob Coleman in these matters. Thanks for showing us an item
we normally do not see at all in decades.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I also wonder about the ventilation metallic "grommets," a word that excites peels of laughter in me that it is used by a sane person, as these compare to
other SA or PL or whatever alte hohe Form Dienstmuetzen of the era, say, 1932-1934.

[HPL2008]

Hi F-B, thanks for your response. The piping was definitely added after the cap was complete, and is tacked on through the lining, although it shows every sign of having been in place from the period, and I suppose reflects a promotion.

Very well possible, I would say: Under the 1931 regulations, ranks up to and including Truppführer (i.e. the equivalent of other ranks and NCOs) wore no crown piping. The rank of Sturmführer and after 1933 Sturmführer up to and including Sturmhauptführer (i.e. the equivalent of company grade officers) had black-and-white crown piping.

(So this is not an NCO's cap, actually.)

[Adrian Stevenson]

Thanks for showing it.

I like the look of it.

Cheers, Ade.

[Arran]

Thanks for all the replies, gentlemen! There really are so few survivors for this early type of cap with which to compare...

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I own two, of course, but they have no piping.