Something for the Eagle Weenies

[W.Unland]

An interesting FSP NCO's sleeve eagle.

The obverse is a good pattern, but the town embroidery is an uncommon font and looks like machine chain stitching. So far so good.

The scan looks very bright red, actually it is the typical dark carmine pink as used by the FSP.

[W.Unland]

Here is where the unusual kicks in.

Looking at the reverse it is clear that the name has been added by HAND. Some needle point embroidery stitch looking like chain stitching has been used. Period applied? I have no clue but the insignia has no evidence of being messed with. I can imagine some fireman's wife adding the name for him, but that is just conjecture on my part.

The ink stamp to the reverse is also unusual and my have been added by the person taking it as a souvenir. I have NEVER seen a maker marked cloth insignia.

Just for the interested,
William Unland

[germanpolice]

These eagle where from herman historica, different birds with the same embroidery so all where agreed to be post war named

[Dave C.]

Interesting...

And I was actually able to locate the past thread/discussion:

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...hlight=hamburg

[W.Unland]

I had totally forgotten that old thread. Senile dementia comes to mind.

I am still perplexed by this one. A good eagle with hand done fake naming? Totally possible, but it would have been way more simple to use a machine to chain stitch a name.

If the eagle itself is a repro, then I give up because I cant tell the difference any more. That said what are the chances someone would screw up a group of good un-named FSP eagles by hand chainstitching HAMBURG on all of them? Again totally possible, but for what I paid a waste of effort.

Looking at it now that ink stamp should have been a bad sign. The one in the old thread had a partial paper tag. Seems the fakers dont know when to stop. A bit too much in an attempt to give it more legitimacy. To make it even BETTER! Perhaps a swastika stamp would have sold it even more.

I guess this one will stay in the odd ball box. Or maybe I will pick that name off of it, I still think it is a good insignia.


I'll go back to sleep now.......

Bill U

[germanpolice]

Still a good eagle

[W.Unland]

OK, an interesting aside to the debate about the insignia with the hand embroidered "Hamburg" name:

In an effort to discover the truth I picked off the name and found to my surprise that the area under the thread is lighter than the rest of the insignia wool. HUM, that tells me that the naming was on the insignia BEFORE it became soiled and dirty. Unless we are now going to argue that the eagle was artificially aged, and there is no evidence of this being the case, then guess what? Yes the naming could have been original.

No I can't explain how a bunch of different pattern eagles came to be named in the same manner. Clearly as they were sold together, they came together. One man with different pattern insignia, unlikely but not impossible.

If the naming was done recently whomever did it went to a lot of trouble aging the insignia just in case someone like me would remove the lettering to discover the area beneath was lighter!

I am still of the opinion that the insignia is original. I am now NOT so sure that the naming I removed was fake!!!!!

Regards,
W. Unland

[JoeW]

Bill did you test the thread with a match to see if it was cotton or synthetic ?

[W.Unland]

It appeared to be silk, at least looked like it under magnification. I didnt try a melt test on it.....it didnt occur to me at the time.

Bill U