The tail of two Willes!

[BenVK]

Joking aside, these two Heinrich Wille made black hats are worthy of study, especialy the velvet banded one. The owner Christian, has kindly agreed to allow me to post photos and would also like to hear your thoughts about period upgrades of EM caps by means of sewing on the velvet band.

I know it's difficult but it would be nice if prehaps we could come to a definite conclusion, as far as possible, in regards to the practise of "upgrading" EM hats or any other item of black uniform for that matter because it's seems, and pardon the rubbish joke, it's a rather grey area.

From a purely technical point of view, I have no doubt that the modification was period done and expertly so. To me eye, the velvet wasn't just merely sewn over the top like with others I have seen. This one seems a more skilled operation completely and I wonder, in the financial sense why it was considered feasable to do this when a brand new Officers hat from an RZM approved outlet was what? only around 12RM? That assuming that the original owner had to pay for the upgrade.. After all and we tend to forget this, it's quite reasonable to assume that he maybe had a relation or friend with the skills who could have done it for free?

[Woolgar]

A debate I am looking forward to hearing

Nick

[davejb]

Personally, i see nothing wrong in this particular upgrade provided it was period done , i also think that it shows the caps progression throughout the period and gives it extra appeal and a talking point, but i think a great deal depends how well the upgrade was done , a shabby job willl spoil the overall look of what was once a decent EM cap, i would also like to know if they were both hand stitched and machined

[Bochmann]

I do not see anthing wrong with it either as long as it was done period. One tends to forget that a lot of these guys were more "hands on" or craft orientated and that there may well have been a few WW1 vet tailors within the Standarte or Sturm who would have been able to carry out this work for a fraction of the cost or for beer money, so why would you spend 12 RM (3 weeks pay) if you knew that there was someone on hand who could do a good job for less?