Colonial Visor Part II: School is in Session

[Bhokara]

I can't post photos, so a fellow WAF-member has agreed to post several photos for me here.

[Brian L.]

Image 3

[Brian L.]

Image 1 and 2

[Bhokara]

For all the WAF members who don’t collect visors, don’t collect imperial, don’t know anything about visor caps, who have never seen an officer’s Home Uniform visor cap for German East Africa, much less ever actually handled one, who have never read the 1898 uniform regulations and couldn’t read them if they were on the table in front of them, because they’re in German, who have never visited any of the German museums or any of the advanced collections in Europe, but who “had an opinion” on the cap which was shown in an earlier thread anyway, school is in session.

As I said at the time, the cap sold on Ebay is a beautiful, museum-quality specimen of an extremely rare cap. “Oh no,” said the so-called “experts”, who despite never having seen an original told everyone “They Didn’t Make Them That Way” because Bubba down at the truck stop said so, here are the facts:

As you can see from the side-by-side comparison with the cap in the collection of the Bayerisches Armeemuseum, in fact, “They DID Make Them That Way.” The white band DOES go all the way to the bottom of the cap.

And, as I said at the time, only one fabric was used for these, and the cap sold on Ebay has the EXACT same fabric as the sample in the Bayerisches Armeemuseum. The side-by-side comparison shows this fabric, which has fine parallel lines in the weave with small dimples running between the lines in each row. This material is quite distinctive, and tells people who actually know what they’re talking about that the piece is original.

[Bhokara]

The original period photograph, which was sent as a postcard from German East Africa before WWI, shows a German officer wearing the white tropical uniform. His Schutztruppe shoulderboard is clearly visible. Because there was no white visor cap made for the tropical uniform, most officers simply used the Home Uniform cap, as this officer does. As you can see in the photograph, this officer is wearing the EXACT cap which was sold on German eBay. There were only two or three makers of these caps, and clearly the cap being worn by this officer is by the same maker as the Ebay cap. (The sample in the Bayerisches Armeemuseum is a Teppelskirsche cap.) It matches in every detail.

I was deployed for a while, so it took some time to pull this together. I have taken the time to do so not so much for this cap, the owner of which is a very advanced collector with a 500,000 Euro colonial collection and couldn’t care less what ignoramuses think of it. As I said at the very beginning, and which I have now proven here beyond any shadow of a doubt, the cap sold on Ebay is a stunning original. That was obvious to knowledgeable collectors from the start.

The more important point here is that militaria cannot be authenticated by a majority of “opinions” from ignorant people who don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. The problem with the so-called "experts" on WAF is that they are destroying the hobby by passing negative judgements on things they know nothing about, and piled on by "me-too's" who know even less but want to appear to know something by agreeing with the pseudo-experts.

This is why the real experts rarely participate here.

[PaulChep]

Sometimes it is not what you say, it is how you say it.

[MauserKar98k]

Sometimes it is not what you say, it is how you say it.

Precisely. I for one applaud member Bhokara for sharing his knowledge with us and teaching us all about these Colonial visor caps in a classy and professional fashion, definitely not going out of his way to rub our noses in it and treat us like f*cking idiots who are ruining the hobby with our gross incompetence. Oh...wait...

[Bhokara]

... and treat us like f*cking idiots who are ruining the hobby with our gross incompetence...

If the shoe fits...

[Chip M]

Please, why is anyone paying any attention to this guy? Attention is exactly what he is wanting. Ignore him and he will go away.

[Bhokara]

Actually, no, that’s imprecise. That’s not exactly the point I’m making. It’s not your gross incompetence that’s ruining the hobby, it’s your pretended knowledge.

Your comment on the original thread was “I'm not a fan of it either and I certainly wouldn't have gambled that much money on it. (with a cute little emoticon that said “No Way”). We see now that you made this judgment from a position of complete ignorance. You had never seen one, you had never handled one, you really didn’t even know what it was – yet you felt compelled to condemn it, based on information apparently pulled out of the Department of Your Own Ass. I’m singling you out, but others on the thread made more foolish comments (not one of whom so far has been enough of a gentleman to stand up and say “I was wrong):

“I mean a very, very tricky fake.” (hurrah de) No, it’s not, it’s original

“Whether this is a Colonial visor, or a GdC visor, or Field Artillery, is irrelevant! As are the materials and regulations. What gives this cap away as a fake is the technique used in its construction” (Arran) No, the exact opposite is true: the fact that it’s a colonial visor, the materials and the regulations make all the difference in the world.

“…the band colour go all the way down to the lower edge of the body? This is extremely unusual for pre-1918 construction techniques…There is always a thin lower edge of the top colour, be it Dunkelblau, Feldgrau, red, what-ever on the bottom edge below the band. This one is white to the bottom, which is very odd.” (Tony & Kaiser) Yes, different, but correct for this visor.

My real point is that THIS is what’s ruining the hobby. The original thread is a textbook case study. People with no knowledge of a specific item pretending they do, or extrapolating points about other militaria and stretching it to cover other, different pieces. In other words, people who don’t know WHAT IN THE HELL THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT who are so arrogant they feel the need to act like experts and comment anyway, spreading ignorance through the hobby by condemning museum pieces as fakes.

At the end of the day, these people are no different conceptually from militaria fakers and forgers. A faker passes off something which is faked as something which is genuine. That’s exactly what the people commenting on this cap did: They passed off something which was faked (knowledge) as something which was genuine (expertise). And THAT is what is ruining the hobby.

(And now, of course, everyone will have to gang up and throw the guy who was right off the stage with comments like "ignore him.")

[Tony & Kaiser]

Well, actually, no, you are really coming across an asshole and I do not understand why? I have a reasonably well respected web site for the sole purpose of supplying solid knowledge to prevent collectors from getting ripped off. When a new collector (which is often a teenager; the hope of the hobby) I am polite and as helpful as I can be. I do what I can to help. I have suffered through the most painful inane questions but remain polite, as they just don't know.

You, sadly, seem to insult anyone who does not know what you know. Why? I would never do that. I just do not understand why you are so rude? You said you were on deployment, I have been too, I am a Canadian soldier. God help me if I was your command. I do my best to treat everyone with respect. You, clearly do not.

[R.Beck]

And here I was hoping this guy was lost in the jungle

[PaulChep]

I am closing thsi thread before it gets really nasty.