SS LAH Panzer Wrapper

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Thank you, Ben, for all the nice images. I am sure many of these were tailored by someone other than the well known names and not made in some slave cap factory. Richard P. also had a Paul Kaps general field cap, too, in fact, but I am not buying it. It was offered to me, though.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

For that matter, who would have believed that officers caps could be made of Silk, if the period photos didn't show them in wear?

Silk was widely used in civilian head wear, as well as II. Reich military caps. The SS introduced said caps in 1937-8. I own one.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I wonder what the artisans who made these wonderful privately tailored garments would make of the endless analysis of grommets?

"Grommet" is nearly as poetic a word as "prong."

Grommet-ology and prong-ology are two of mankind's greatest callings.

[N.C. Wyeth]

So what happened to the SS LAH Panzer Wrapper?

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Attachment 412692Attachment 412693Attachment 412694Attachment 412695Attachment 412696Attachment 412697Attachment 412698Attachment 412699Attachment 412700Attachment 412701Attachment 412702Attachment 412703Attachment 412704Attachment 412705Attachment 412706Attachment 412691The above essay manifests a thoughtful, pessimistic reading of things. The points about variation and personal taste are absolutely valid and very significant.
For myself, I have learned a great deal in the last decade despite the horrors and outrages.
A skilled person, attentive to the demands of the task, and skeptical in a healthy way can make their way in the thicket, but with some risk. To acquire all the knowledge needed is not done in an afternoon, or even with a hundred posts here. It is a more consuming task. I think Richard P was an informed collector, since he worked together with others I know and respect and upon whose analytical ability I rely.
The quality and volume of fakes today is considerable. I concentrate on textiles, since things of metal were dicey even in 1965.
The fakers were rampant in the late 1960s. The beginner has far greater resources at hand today than then.
The cannibal and the grave robber can also engage in their larceny with great ease via the digital blow, but there are also others who can see through the smoke screen of nonsense of self inflated blander.
One other point as concerns textiles is this: the German firms that made these textiles are mostly gone; I am not convinced that warehouses of unused SS Trikot are easily had as some purport here; and, most important, the nice Chinese tailors or whatever who make SS uniforms now are surely not the original artisans, and are devoid of their skill. I never collected cheaply made field uniforms, but black tunics, and the well made fakes of these in no way really duplicate an authentic, 80 year old garment. In no way. It is also true that one can decorate a real tunic with real insignia to make something of dubious history, but which fools many people. This problem is hardly a new one, and was present for me in the 1960s, too, with the glee with which army artillery piped field tunics were elevated to general's rank, as well as with Waffenroecke.
But here is a key point......and one which defies being gainsaid.
If you read the sources, uniform tailors were a rare breed in 1936. They required special training then, and were in short supply.
I have already made the point that in the late 19th and early 20th century, the apprenticeship for a tailor was e i g h t years. Such an thing is unfeasible and unaffordable today by any stretch.
Nor are Chinese uniforms actually made as an expensive and well made III. Reich uniform of the era.

In any case, a beginning collector has access to some very fine expertise, which I surely did not have as a pup in 1964 or 1965.

But this episode of the lynch mob going after the blessed soul of Richard P. is deeply disgusting and repugnant in the extreme.
And so what if a few of his pieces turn out to be fake? Does such a fact in any way justify this digital cannibalism and witch's sabbath as had by the goons on Bianchi's wretched site?

The how-to-make-cap book extract from the year 1935 and a fabric cutter ca 1941 or so, whose heirs are likely no longer in the craft and trade.....

[NATJER]

Has anyone seen the "how-to-make" book for wrappers? Is this also called a Lehrbuch?

[Friedrich-Berthold]

What you call a "wrapper" was called at the time by those who wore it a Panzerfeldjacke.
I have several military tailoring books, none of which includes the armored field jacket.
It is not my expertise.

[Glenn66]

Grommet-ology and prong-ology are two of mankind's greatest callings.

Not to mention, 'Skull-ology'.

[NATJER]

Roger and Thank you. If possible sometime I would like to speak to you about tailoring technique.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Not to mention, 'Skull-ology'.

I think you mean "scull-ology..." but you are absolutely right. The quest for knowledge has seldom achieved such a sublime form of accomplishment. In comparison, the struggle over splitting the atom and the race to the moon are humdrum.