Prussian M1907/10 Kratzchen

[MAP]

Another item I picked up today.

A bit of a gamble there are some great fakes out there.

Hard to see from the photos, but in hand, under a loop, fabric (wool, band and interior) matches perfectly with my salty moth eaten example. Construction is almost a perfect match too. Nothing glows under a black light and it has that great musty smell too. It even has a few moth nips and wear to the "nap".

That said, it's in mint condition, has no interior "BA" stamping and has an ever so slight stitching difference on the interior where the liner is tacked to the edge.

[Larry C]

Nice find Michael...did you pick this up locally ?

[MAP]

Nice find Michael...did you pick this up locally ?

Yes. At the local show near me.

As noted, this was a gamble and could turn out to be a repro but from what I can see it looks good.

[Larry C]

Never say Never because we have seen what we thought is not possible ...but ends up being an artifact that may have not seen the light of day as much or any action in the field. We have these well kept artifacts in our collections..but lets see how it plays out as you said.

Regards Larry

[AndyM35]

Michael, according to the dealers website “Regimentals”, there was recently a small hoard of Prussian Kratzchen discovered in unused condition. Too good to be true? Perhaps, but their website has a couple of examples in minty condition.

I know there were private purchase examples as well, so perhaps this one could fit into that category?

[MAP]

Thanks Andy.

This one has some wear (very hard to photograph) and was in my dealer friends possession for many years. Also, private purchase examples typically have Kokarden with split pins rather than the sewn on style.

[Kohima]

Your new Krätzchen has a machine-stitched lining band, versus the hand-stitched version of the old. Both perfectly correct construction methods.
The new one looks fine to me. Nice and grimy on the inside - despite a lack of acceptance stamps, which were not always present, or may have been a light strike, since washed out.

[MAP]

Your new Krätzchen has a machine-stitched lining band, versus the hand-stitched version of the old. Both perfectly correct construction methods.
The new one looks fine to me. Nice and grimy on the inside - despite a lack of acceptance stamps, which were not always present, or may have been a light strike, since washed out.

Thanks. The stitching was a concern as I haven't seen a "machine stitched" example. But everything else seemed legit! So just wasn't sure. The smell though smells like 100 years of musty gold! LoL