Free polish army patched uniform tunic??? - please help

[anton67]

Hi,
I have been offered this Free Polish Army tunic.
Can anyone tell me whether it is authentic?
Also, I have never seen one before and I know nothing about them.
The seller wants me to make him an offer.
I hate doing that.
Anyway can someone give me a ball park as to what it is worth?
Thank you in advance.

[anton67]

Last pics

[Mathomhaus]

All WW2 Polish insignia has been extensively reproduced. All your photos establish is that someone has sewn "Poland" tabs and and an 8th Army patch in roughly the correct locations; frankly, the Second Corps patch is on at the wrong angle.

What you need to show are very clear and well exposed closeup photos of the blouse so that someone who knows what he is looking at can tell you if the stitching style matches period tailoring (the Polish Army in the West had men in almost every unit who were either genuine tailors or who functioned as tailors; as a result, each unit tended to have distinct styles of sewing). Back in the late 80s, while visiting the Sikorski Museum in London, I saw a fellow verify a couple of badged up Polish battledress blouses based as much on the way they were sewn as on their actual insignia.

Frankly, genuine surplus Polish WW2 insignia (both cloth and metal) could still be purchased in London as late as the 80s from something called the Polish Combattant's Book Store and also from random Polish officer clubs. A Polish American collector I knew bought a dozen patches from me in the winter of 89 or 90 and the next summer I was alarmed to see that he'd sewn everything on to a surplus British battledress blouse (with old cotton thread) and he was participating in a reenactor event wearing it...

Regards

P.S. I once knew an English doctor who was working at a Philadelphia hospital in the 70s or 80s; he told me that when he was a kid in London in 41, he once told his mother that when he grew up he wanted to be a Polish pilot - they all seemed to have sports cars and the best tailored uniforms!