Lw m43 black feldmutze for review and comments

[Horrido]

Hi all ,
I'm posting the pictures of a very interesting,albeit strange M43-style Luftwaffe feldmutze,brought to me today by a friend who's found it at a sale of costumes and uniforms from a closing theater in Rome.Before going on further let me tell you that this cap won't be put for sale,it's been paid a handful of Euros,hasn't been messed with and came in a cardboard box full of WW1 and WW2 Italian breeches and a nice pair of WW1 French Blu Horizon trousers (that I almost literally grabbed off his hands)and a few other items spanning the period from 1918 to 1945,which thing adds to the confusion.
I've been collecting for the best part of the past 40 years,seen lots of fakes and oddities but this one is really puzzling.Panzer and SS items are not my fortè,therefore I'm posting it here for you to comment and discuss.
The first things that have struck my attention are the overall conditions of the cap,definitely salty (the cloth is rather stiff,as if it was made of cardboard and rats and moth have slightly damaged it),the cloth it's made of,which looks ok,the lining and RBNr which look correct,the buttons,made of wood/corozo,the beautifully made buttonholes with the inner reinforcing thread,the reinforcing cardboard inside the visor and,most of all, the absolutely strange (to me at least!) Luftwaffe Adler,which is neatly zig-zag stitched to the cap with a sewing that looks legit,but which is something I've never seen before,with that black thread running along the wings.
The cap has no reinforcing whatsoever under the hem of the earcovers,which thing isn't a 100% red flag per se,and the two loops made of cheesecloth are something I've already seen on WH and Luftwaffe M43s,but this eagle is making me scratch my head big time;my friend would love to know more about it but I couldn't be positive,so I asked him to leave it at my house in order to take a few pictures and see if I can find more infos with your help.
As far as I know the eagle could be a fake but why zig-zag sewing it with original,period thread in a manner that it's 101% correct?Why bothering to add a RBNr to a cap that would have probably been worn by a bit player in an Italian B-movie?This cap,when seen in the flesh hasn't been definitely messed with,that's why I call it "puzzling",and its conditions,stiffness,smell and feel clearly tell the story of a cap that's been forgotten under a ton of junk for ages!
Could it be a very late Luftwaffe/HG M43 with a rare eagle seldom (if ever) seen before?As I said before,I see no reason whatsoever in manufacturing such a cap that would have been worn once or twice and seen from a distance and, being this the case, such an attention to details would be absolutely pointless IMHO!A fake?Perhaps...but the eagle,real deal or not,has a few good details to it,as it's the case with the cheesecloth loops,the zig-zag sewing and the buttons/buttonholes.These details are found on the "new-generation" fakes but this one has spent at least three decades rotting under cardboard boxes full of costumes of all sorts!
Any help useful to cast a light on this cap would be GREATLY appreciated!
TIA
Lou

[gel65]

Hello this is quite an odd one I like this an believe it to be period. I believe that this either Herman Goring Panzer Dv, Or this is a mechanics.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Lou, it looks convincing to me.

Cheers, Ade.

[davejb]

Me too, I had heard that the major film studios in and around Rome had an abundance of original TR items in their costume departments, stored from the war and used on various productions, perhaps this is one of them, I have been around various film studios here and been into their costume and props depts and its amazing what you can see and find, original antiques, WW2 costumes , weapons etc , so i would'nt dismiss this as an outright costume piece,, it could also be an Italian period made piece but the guys in the know would ID it as such

[Horrido]

Hi guys,
thank you do very much for chimin' in with your comments and thought about this cap.
The "feel" is absolutely right but the eagle is strange,with those black threads along the wings,what do you guys think?
Best
Lou

[Jerry B]

The eagle looks very large, which is typical of Italian made cloth cap eagles. It is a strange one and also, the quality on Italian made examples is often poor compared with German made types. I have not seen this type before, so it is just speculation on my part.

[Horrido]

Thank you Jerry for weighin in!
This afternoon I'll take better pictures of it and compare its size to a "regular" M43 eagle!I wouldn't rule out the possibility of this cap being a late-War Italian made HG M43,given the fact that the "feel" of the feldmutze in its whole is right....and a collector can feel that in his guts....the eagle remains the puzzling part though!The Fallschirm-Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring fought around Rome,at Anzio,Cisterna and Cassino...it would be nice if this cap belonged to one of those men!
Cheers
Lou

[Horrido]

A few more pictures taken in daylight.Hope the details will be clearer.Notice the blau-grau thread used in the adler and cockade sewing,the way the latter overlaps the former and the overall salty and been-there feel of the cap.From the tip of the right wing to the tip of the left one the adler is 3.30” wide.As Murphy would have had it I couldn’t find a single Luftwaffe cap to compare eagles where I am at the moment…I must have taken them all to my other house!
Hope these pictures will be more useful than the ones I’ve posted last night and that were taken in a hurry!
Regards
Lou

[LondonJay]

Hi Lou,
I just measured the adler on one of my luft 43's and it is just under 3" wing to wing.
By the way I love the look of this one. Check the buttonholes out, real beauty's my friend!!

Jay

[Horrido]

Hi there Jay,
so glad to mett you here again after eons...what do you think about the two lines of black thread along the wings?Never seen them,but the cap screams "Hey..Im the real deal"! I wish my friend scored a home run with this one!!!
Cheers
Lou