seen it on a bunch of dealer websites but no explanation. thanks!
What is a “PRIVATE PURCHASE” visor cap?
seen it on a bunch of dealer websites but no explanation. thanks!
Private purchase means the article was produced and purchased out side the RZM system.
Typically these items are produced to RZM spec but may have more bells and whistles to them.
So these are not standard issue items.
The RZM labels seen on items produced are items produced by RZM licensed produce system and manufacturers pay for that right to the RZM.
A couple of cases in hand would be an RZM A-SS visor cap that would have the orangish oil skin material liner, a sweat shield producer marked triangle with manufacturers name and and private purchase A-SS visor that has a black silk like liner in lieu of the oil skin liner.
Most private purchased visors would have the bill marked with the SS RZM mark as tailored haberdasheries do not produce visor bills but purchase these through the RZM system, and some do not which can be quite rare. Understanding era produced bills is key to wha'ts right and what is not. Most visor bills are orangish color but there were bill producers who made visor bills bottoms with in am grey color, these are Verfungstruppe (sp?) style bills and the visors may have the grey liner in lieu of orange liner.
Another case is a non RZM visor gets bills when the SS RZM stamp may be located on left side of the bill looking up at it from below. That was doe to discern that the bill was sold to the non RZM compliant haberdasher.
Then under the sweat band is found the visor caps producers RZM and perhaps the SS silk cloth tag but non RZM produced Private Purchase the tags are not present.
Outward appearance the items look similar but looking close to the item in hand, there may be differences that from a distance one would not see it.
These things can become confusing but when you handle enough items that are produced both ways you'll begin to have a better understanding of what your looking at and what is RZM vs Private Purchase.
Another facet is tunics, a tailor made piece made to RZM spec but has no RZM tag and an RZM issue piece that has the RZM tag and various stampings in white seen on the inside of the tunic with their manufacturer label present.
Obtaining books is your pathway to digesting this gibberish, As a recommendation for tunics the 3 book series produced by Michael Beaver with the help of numerous collectors and dealers and the the book series by Wilhelm Saris, Headgear of Hitlers Germany. While these outwardly may seem expensive you'll end up being saved a lot of heartache discovering later that the highly sought for item is a post war preproduction. And I do know what that is like loosing thousands early on to the shysters in this business.
If I've made any errors here others will point that out but a great reference library is a necessity if your collecting these things.
Good luck collecting, show us an item with excellent images if you have questions of items your not certain of, the last thing anyone wants to see is being taken when emotions & excitement of a find run high at a show, store or internet purchase.
Also because the item does have an RZM tag, thats no certainty of original era produced item as the fraudsters are producing these too. Another reason to have a library at you finger tips.
A great explanation. Thank you. Can you elaborate the term "Issue quality" in terms of headgear? Does this mean inferior?
Rich Moran's explanation is true for SS and party items. Heer items weren't distributed by RZM but either issued to the soldiers or could/had to be (for officers) privately bought. There is a thread on this here:
Heer Artillery NCO Visor Cap
Instead of thinking "inferior" think this, the difference would be going to a mens clothing store the sells suits and shirts premanufactured off the rack. Then that same store offers tailor made clothing that you the buyer wants options included, such as a slightly looser collar on a dress shirt and you want it short sleeved with your monogram embossed on the shirts left pocket. The same holds true for suits, you prefer a somewhat tighter waist cut to highlight your bodies profile, smaller French cuffs or even larger French cuffs or no cuffs at all. Breast pockets on both sides of the inner liner and a more defined cut at the back of the suit jacket. The difference then is what you want done to your specification costs more and takes more time to produce.by Vocht
Where off the rack or shelf items preproduced may not be a designer fit, from a distance the suit if produced similar for a group of people is difficult to distinguish from tailor made. The higher the rank, the income provided for tailor made where an EM/NCO may not have the funds to do the same in tailor made the garment still matches everyone else and provides the necessary uniformity demanded in an military organization when parading, standing at attention or at ease or while being inspected. These tailored items were considered being "jaunty" and while matching similarities exists the owner and few others notice the difference. As people moved up the chain of command the more individualistic approach becomes more acceptable.
Such as Sepp Dietrich's uniforms, where his insignia was overlaid in gold bullion where his reportees had mere silver bullion insignia, his reportees would dare not match him as RHIP (rank has its priviliges) that what he did was definitely outside the requirement of the RZM system but acceptable and beyond approach by others. Hitler accepted what he did, Himmler no doubt frowned on it but Dietrich did what he did because thats the way it was.
And this yet goes on in todays military, where high ranking officers procure tailor made uniforms while the lower ranks rely on uniform issue to supply their garments. also you may see in images a person wearing a mix of tailor made and standard issue garments, when that happens the need was immediate and the buyer could not wait for tailor made garments.
In our days, unfortunately, many people don't even know what French cuffs are. Rich, your knowlege of vestimentary issues is very much appreciated!
Private purchase = bought in a store/retail setting.
This is opposed to an issue visor cap which was (mass) produced under contract, and, as the name implies, was issued to the soldier.
Todd
Former U.S. Army Tanker.
"Best job I ever had."
Shall we even get into the Officers Kleiderkasse System??
"Please", Thank You" and proper manners appreciated
My greatest fear is that one day I will die and my wife will sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them
"Don't tell me these are investments if you never intend to sell anything" (Quote: Wife)
Yes and this was taken from the link seen below the explanation.Shall we even get into the Officers Kleiderkasse System??
Review of
Heereskleiderkasse May 1939
Available from Andreas Stanik
e-mail: ad_notam@t-online.de
RRP Euro 8 + Euro 4 for postage & packaging
To place this catalogue / booklet into its true context one firstly needs to understand the Kleiderkasse System. It is a requirement in many western armies that officers provide their own uniform and it was so with the German Wehrmacht during World War 2. Germany realized that this placed a huge financial drain on (especially young) officers and that private purchase items were prohibitively expensive.
As a result of this the Army introduced the [Heeres] Offizier Kleiderkasse. This was in effect an [Army] Officers’ Clothing Sales System. It was a non-profit making body run by a civilian director. It established a system of financial accounts for each and every officer or official with officer status. It did this by a mandatory monthly salary deduction with prescribed amounts depending upon rank. These funds were then deposited into personal and named Kleiderkasse accounts. In addition, the military services occasionally added a special sum as a clothing allowance to the officers’ pay. Over time the deposit balances grew and were managed by the Kleiderkasse on behalf of each and every member (officer).
This system enabled German officers to build up the financial resources required to purchase their uniforms and headgear. The Kleiderkasse published a catalogue offering a large assortment of uniform items (such as caps, complete uniforms, insignia, tress, shoulder boards and uncut fabrics etc.) and their prices were lower than those on the commercial market.
This is an example (re-print) of the Kleiderkasse Catalogue for May 1939. It is in German so knowledge of this language helps. There are a number of images which depict various uniform items and their prices. For example it gives the various prices for the Iron Cross (both classes), army daggers, spurs and other equipment for mounted officers etc.
The catalogue gives an insight into the prices of uniform items just before the outbreak of the War. It is a handy catalogue and it is of greater use as the reader’s language skills improve. Regardless it still has its uses even for a non-German speaker.
February 2014
He explains that much better than I could and in a shorter paragraph!
Attributed to:
Military Archive Research - Heereskleiderkasse May 1939
Similar Threads
Posting Permissions
.
Bookmarks