Locally produced Latvian shield

[Glittering_Ship4193]

Interesting Latvian variant here today, thought it looked kind of odd until I found a reference to it in Foreign Legions of the Third Reich Vol. 4. It certainly looks the part, though it is slightly more elongated than the example in the book. There are some slight variations between the two, but given how they were produced it is not in my opinion, unexpected.

[KMMorris]

The hardest of the 3 for authentication, the fakes of this type are usually screen printed so that is a plus. Is it two bits of material with the blue cloth sown onto the back of it ?

[Glittering_Ship4193]

The hardest of the 3 for authentication, the fakes of this type are usually screen printed so that is a plus. Is it two bits of material with the blue cloth sown onto the back of it ?

Indeed. I've never seen one in the wild before. It's tough to say. Not sure if this close up will help determine.

[KMMorris]

With the locally made examples, I always tell people do not pay the world for these items because there will always be questions. I would hazard it is original but I don't like the back to be honest, which would personally make me pass, these were also given to auxiliary Latvian units and some non ss hilfers. Ashok has a good volunteer thread over on the WAF and is a member here, however he is more active there.