Kratchen Pork Pie cap markings help

[ROBB]

Can someone help with a translation of Arb Ausschu B thankyou , the cap has been taken in at the back and made quite small perhaps for a kid ? Rob

[ROBB]

More photos

[ROBB]

more

[ROBB]

moree

[ROBB]

again

[Chip M]

Robb,

It might mean "Arbeiter Ausschuß", literally translates to "labor board" or "workers commission". It is supposed to be a maker mark. I believe these are are not period stamps.

Chip

[ROBB]

Cheers Chip so do you think the cap could be a very late war poor quality workmanship ersatz cap given to some poor kid with a small head or a total fake ? cheers Rob

[MauserKar98k]

I'm not a big fan of the Bekleidungsamt/date stamp. I'm not an expert with these, but something about the font looks strange to me.

[Chip M]

Well, if it is supposed to be a 1918 manufactured Train cap, the band is the wrong color. By 1918 the light blue color had been replaced by Kaliblau, a much darker shade of blue. The materials seem really shoddy. The wool, the band and the lining are all not what you would expect. Take a look at my 1918 dated cap in the thread "Sanitäter Mütze". I have another cap (Bavarian Einheitsmütze) dated 1918 and the quality is still night and day compared to this one.

I was thrown off at first by the mothing, but that could be attributed to old material used in the construction. I would want to see what happens when you shine a blacklight on it. My initial assessment is a thumbs down.

Chip

[MauserKar98k]

Not to mention that the Saxon cockade doesn't make much sense if it came out of BAXI, which was in Thuringia. The Saxon Bekleidungsamten were XII and XIX.

[ROBB]

Cheers chaps it does seem to be a case of 2+2=7 it smells good it has moth the liner is fragile and it fits a large dolly , as was mentioned before late war caps were all grey the stamps are odd the cockades are odd . I think I will retire it to the loft , when I have backlit it I will let you know the results . Cheers again . Rob