Imperial Silk Top Field Cap - Prussian?

[BaselA]

Hi all - I am primarily a Wehrmacht soft headgear collector, but have had this cap in my collection for a while. Looking for some guidance on what this is, exactly. Would I be correct that it is an M1910 Prussian infantry officer's cap?

Also, is it rare to find these in silk? For TR caps, silk "crushers" are quite rare, but curious if that is also the case with Imperial caps.

Thanks!

[pauke]

nice

An interesting cap you have, Basel. The blue and gray cockade on the cap band is for Bavaria. Both cockades are not of the officer style. It is an infantry cap with the red band and piping, but whether the cockades are original to the cap might be a question. Someone else will have to comment on the silk top as I am not certain whether this would clearly indicate an officer or perhaps it could be for an NCO?

[afrikasandman]

Silk tops are hard to find for sure, they are just striking! Matt

[phild]

IMO not as rare on Imperial feldgrau caps as 3rd Reich, however I see at least 100 3rd Reich visors for every real Imperial feldgrau visor! Sometimes it actually seems more like about 500:1 but it can not be that one sided.

[Adler 1]

It's a Bavarian cap indeed and because it hasn't officers kokarden, it's possibly an NCO cap.
Here are some pictures of mine for comparison… Mine has a chinstrap, camo band and an other type of visor...


Adler 1

[BaselA]

Thanks very much for feedback and guidance, gents.

Can anyone help me ballpark a value on this, keeping in mind that the condition is somewhat rough?

Adler 1, that is a sweet looking cap you've got there, with the original box to boot

[kaiserwilhelm2]

Lovely cap BaselA - and of course that of Adler1 too. Value? I find it always very hard to value damaged items as people react very different to these items - some do not want these, others (myself included) can be persuaded if the price is significantly lower than for an undamaged item. Although I can not see the damage well, and therefore, am not quite sure as to the value but IMO it should do at least 200 usd. But let us see what others say.

[BenVK]

Imperial silk top caps are incredibly difficult to find in any condition.

Took me several years to find this one.
I think I paid about 300 euro for it but would happily have paid a lot more.

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=823891

[pauke]

Bav

Odd that all the examples shown are Bavarian. Perhaps because Bavaria is closer to the Silk Road?

[phild]

IMHO the example posted by Adler is made of polished cotton. I could very well be wrong as it is really impossible to tell from just photos. It is for sure a fact that several different weaves of silk can be encountered in these caps and this weave is one that I most associate with polished cotton of that timeframe and often used in officer tunic linings in similar but not identical weight and look.......and very often incorrectly directly described as silk by collectors/dealers.


I don't think that either material makes a dimes worth of difference in the value or rarity of the cap, that is one over the other. I had the chance to buy (in my hands) a very nice silk Ulan or Dragon (can not recall which) officers cap about a month ago. I have for sure handled several over the last several decades and seen via photos maybe close to a dozen others. Not common, but neither are a lot of variations (services, material types to state a couple of things) of Imperial feldgrau caps.

[BenVK]

Did you buy it? I would be interested if you didn't.

[phild]

Did you buy it? I would be interested if you didn't.

No I didn’t only because I did not a tunic from that color combo cavalry regiment. I bought another feldgrau cap from that collector (same time) that I needed to complete an imperial uniform and was correct for that ones branch of arms. If I can locate his card I will pass on his contact information to you via a PM. He had about 5 imperial officer feldgrau caps for sale and many more not for sale in his collection.

[phild]

Although not directly related to the cap posted, I did want to mention that feldgrau tunics were also made from silk and IMO are much rarer than the silk caps. This is true of both imperial timeframe and also post WWI through at least the end of the 1930s.

[BenVK]

I've seen one or two "silk" feldgrau tunics but they were in a sorry state unfortunately. I put silk in inverted commas because you are of course correct in pointing out that there were many different weaves containing different amounts of silk or artificial silk threads.

Thanks for looking for the sellers card for me.