Does this Party/SA armband have a chance?

[William J]

This came in an old collection years ago. I haven't owned a printed armband, nor one on coarser weave cloth. For some reason, the larger armband was restitched to make it accommodate a smaller sleeve. It is stamped to the Sturm Abteilung on the inside. I have long considered it dubious, but thought it might be smart to post it here before listing it as an old reproduction. And I don't have access to a blacklight to test the stitching.

Any thoughts or comments greatly appreciated!

[William J]

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[William J]

3

[squidney86]

I don't like it. IMO the fabric is wrong and it just doesn't look right any printed armbands that I've seen before.

[Br. James]

Hi William,

Like Squidney, I'm skeptical about this piece -- particularly due to spacing relationship concerns: IMO, the swastika appears to be unevenly spaced within the white disk, and the disk appears to be printed slightly closer to the top of the brassard than to the bottom. In my experience, matters of proportion and spacing were extremely important when constructing objects containing the national symbol, and the RZM and the NSDAP itself were quite strict on the observance of regulations involving these matters.

Having had a bit of experience with offset and stencil printing, I do understand the difficulties inherent in producing a piece that includes two, three or more runs to complete; quite often at least one of those runs is off the mark by a fraction...but with the end result, such errors usually stand out in a much more glaring way than expected.

Cheers,

Br. James

[William J]

Thank you both. I concur, and I will offer this as a reproduction.

[bodes]

The Sturm Abteilung stamp was the first red flag for me....That's an odd stamp and don't recall seeing it used on an arm band before.....Bodes

[Erich B.]

Agree it's a reproduction. I had one exactly like it, to include the same stamping, in the late 1960s.
As mentioned, the proportions are off, plus I think it's a red fabric band with black and white stenciling, rather than the correct silk screened white fabric band with red and black applied.
Erich