Santa just dropped off my Christmas present. An early BW Air Force overcoat and tunic to a former Luftwaffe officer who went on to serve in the BW Air Force. The tunic is, I believe, probably the one he purchased after being promoted to LTC since it is in almost new condition. I think it is an early 1960s piece and the material has a wonderful soft high quality feel to it. While I love it, I need some opinions on how to proceed as the jacket has a stain in the front, which looks like a good dry cleaning could fix, I dont know if with the collar tabs and boards if it can be safely dry cleaned.
The overcoat is a whole different story. A WW2 piece converted to BW Air Force use, the coat was professionally converted to a six button front by sewing up the old button holes and creating new ones and repositioning the buttons and the cuffbands sewn on. In addition, it was modified to accept slip-on shoulder boards. But, as you can see, the buttons for the boards are gone, as are the boards. The cuff bands, which are beautiful heavy silver bullion pieces with lots of great patina, were removed from the coat at some point and I found them stuffed in one of the pockets. So here is the question, is it worth restoring?
The overcoat is a whole different story. A WW2 piece converted to BW Air Force use, the coat was professionally converted to a six button front by sewing up the old button holes and creating new ones and repositioning the buttons and the cuffbands sewn on. In addition, it was modified to accept slip-on shoulder boards. But, as you can see, the buttons for the boards are gone, as are the boards. The cuff bands, which are beautiful heavy silver bullion pieces with lots of great patina, were removed from the coat at some point and I found them stuffed in one of the pockets. So here is the question, is it worth restoring?
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