Recommended books and related literature

[BenVK]

Please post your recommended reading material here.

[M18922]

Thanks for making this thread Ben!

I can recomend Gary Wilkins book, I enjoyed it and learned some great things



Cheers, Pat

[spandau]

Bonjour to all,

here is the first recommendation i would make to anyone who is starting out with collecting caps and wants an overview of just about everything in a one hit book.

It's an old publication, well out of print but for it's day ground breaking and pretty accurate still in terms of content and explanation. If you see it buy it because the pics are good and it covers political, armed forces, civilian and government bodies.



Second recommendation is for a publisher really. The books are not cap specific but headgear is covered in all these publications in one format or another. The attention to detail and information contained in these books is fantastic and although not cheap they are a well worth investment if you are interested in these areas.



The reichswehr book is in my opinion the best book I have ever bought.

I will post more cap specific books later.

cheers

tony

[spandau]

As I'm on a posting roll here come some more books for your consideration.

This has a fantastic aray of rare and super rare caps. Erich k has had an input into the work and the authors collections are jaw dropping. my only critique is that there are no pictures of the insides of the caps (to prevent helping forgers). Check out their website as well, well worth a look.



Two volume set from Moran and Maquire on headgear. Low on text but high on top notch caps from all branches of service.



This book is brilliant. Covers all bits of booty that came home via the us troops. I like the stuff they basically pinched and the fact there was even a written policy for what counted as souvenirs and what was looting. well done the GI's !!



cheers

tony

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Bonjour to all,

here is the first recommendation i would make to anyone who is starting out with collecting caps and wants an overview of just about everything in a one hit book.

It's an old publication, well out of print but for it's day ground breaking and pretty accurate still in terms of content and explanation. If you see it buy it because the pics are good and it covers political, armed forces, civilian and government bodies.



Second recommendation is for a publisher really. The books are not cap specific but headgear is covered in all these publications in one format or another. The attention to detail and information contained in these books is fantastic and although not cheap they are a well worth investment if you are interested in these areas.



The reichswehr book is in my opinion the best book I have ever bought.

I will post more cap specific books later.

cheers

tony

Here are the Militaria Verlag books I strongly endorse. I own them in German, but they are a pleasure and a source of true knowledge, even about head wear.
They are the best of their kind. The Shutt book is curiosity of a by gone era, though for its time, thirty years ago, it was a revolution. The pictures from Delich's collection are still worthwhile. The Shutt book is marred by horrible grammar, as well as an antiquated state of knowledge seen by today's standards. However, a useful thing if you can find an example. Mine I bought 30 years ago exactly.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

These books from Bender have much merit to them, though they are also not without flaws. However, the benefits of such works well outweigh whatever demerits operate. The authors have worked through much of the primary literature in a way that is not the case with the Schiffer books, which tend just to be catalogs of certain pieces in a handful of collections. Certain of the caps illustrated in said works are likely dicey, but I read especially the volume on NSDAP and SA head wear because such contains the best analysis of these topics. The volume on the Allgemeine SS and NSKK is much stronger on the latter than the former. The physical layout and quality of binding is very dated, surely.

None of the picture books is free of flaws, but this fact is a normal feature of actual life.

The senior leader NSKK kepi is from our own Bob Coleman.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

This work analyzes the evolution of the field grey uniform of the old army, and is revealing of the context of head wear.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The digital version of UM is a gold mine, but hard for many to access.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

These two contemporary works are essential, but also, hard to find and very costly. The Ehrlich work condenses much of what is in UM as concerns the history of uniform making, as well as a tour d' horizon of the Peek/Cloppenburg firm and its production of uniforms. The Hempe book is written by an artisan for other artisans and cap makers as part of the vocational training put in hand in the face of the increased need for uniform caps with the advent of the III. Reich.

The publisher that put out UM also carried this title. The version I have is from early to mid 1935.

A copy of the Ehrlich book is for sale in Germany for only 1500 Euros. It is possible to find it for much less, if you are lucky.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Those interested in the SS would do well to deepen themselves in the evolution of SS economic enterprises, to include the clothing works. This volume is the best on this subject.