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
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
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