Schwalbennester Tress Patterns - SA

[Shawn Southern]

As a collector of all things Third Reich and Imperial musician related, I'm accumulated a rather large collection of schwalbennester, or "swallows nests." Military nests are relatively easy to identify to branch of service based on the characteristic tresse pattern. Additionally, "most" Heer nests have either a field grey or bottle green backing and those of the Luftwaffe a blue-grey backing. In the realm of civil and paramilitary, it becomes a bit more difficult. I believe I've identified three patterns of tresse attributable to the SA. Part of the difficulty lies in the fact that 1.) the backings (reverse...as opposed to the obverse "Background") on many of these are not of the brown shade typical of the SA. I see white, black, and navy blue used - to name a few - as well as brown. I suspect that many of the nests I'm about to post may have been used by other organizations as well. For instance the pink nest post may have been used by Fire Police. An additional point of confusion is that the straight ribbed pattern of tresse appears to have been used on WWI military schwalbennester and, short of hints provided by the backing material/color...there can be doubt whether SA, WWI military, or other.

So......I'm looking for your inputs on 1.) the various patterns used by the SA (and perhaps other organizations if "shared") and 2.) photos you may have of nests on uniforms - particularly those with variant pattern tresse. Many thanks!

First up (and although too dark)...what I believe to be a drum majors set from SA Gruppe Kurpfalz (blue-green). What I shall refer to as the "Diamond edge/diagonal square" pattern.

Best Regards,

Shawn

[Shawn Southern]

Same pattern

The same pattern - Drum major SA Gruppe Bayerishe Ostmark (?)

[Shawn Southern]

Next Pattern

The next pattern....straight ribbed tresse. First, I presume the yellow nest could have been used by SA Gruppe Schlesien or SA Signals? Looks closest to sulphur yellow based on my references. Pink? SA Gruppe Sudmark - Late 38 or 39 colors?

[Shawn Southern]

Final pattern

The final pattern. I'll referred to this one as "the third pattern" for the sake of simplicity. Here's an array of nests with this coloration. All with white tresse for drummers/fifers.

[Shawn Southern]

Final photo

Another nest with white tresse (Spielmann), white fringe and blue background.

So.....a final question: Can one date these nests based on the tresse pattern used?

Many thanks!

Shawn

[GEROME]

Hi
Brown for the PL musicien
Bleue for the SA Oberland


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[GEROME]

pics

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orst 36/39

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[Shawn Southern]

Nice!

Very nice swpblitz. Thanks for posting.

[sgstandard]

Nests

Nest in Post # 1 is for the "Musikzuge Leader" (Identical to the Drum Major, but the Drum Major had COTTON fringe - not metallic).

[sgstandard]

Nests

The Nest on Post #3 looks more like Staff of SA Headquarters (assuming it's magenta colored like the photo). If it's blood red, it's Group Staff. Sudmark pink is much lighter.

[blackheart0866]

Hi
Brown for the PL musicien
Bleue for the SA Oberland


[ATTACH]1657474[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]1657475[/ATTACH]

Wow, I love that SA Bugle in the back ground, as its just like mine is.

Very nice...

[GEROME]

thank you
I took pictures of my bugle tonight

[Shawn Southern]

Thanks

Thanks SGStandard. The pink in the schwalbennest shown is rose pink color, very much similar in appearance to Heer Panzer (early deeper shade...not the later "powder" pink color).

So...anyone else with SA schwalbennester to post?!

Shawn

[blackheart0866]

thank you
I took pictures of my bugle tonight

I posted detailed pics of my SA bugle on here in a new thread.

Thanks