The Superfakes: The Triple Serial #s

[stonemint]

As promised, I figured out the mystery of the superfakes--what I call the Triple Serial #s, for the 3 sets of serial #s on the inside of the S/B.

I would once again like to thank Bob Hritz for his generosity in lending me his Feldgendarmerie visor for study, and Derek for raising this issue in the first place.

First of all, guess the fake:

[stonemint]

Its the one on the right.

These are the best ground-up repros I have seen. I have had the opportunity to inspect 2 in the last month.
To keep the suspense going, I won't give away the maker until later in the thread--but must admit, I breathed a sigh of relief when I figured it out--I thought there was a whole new top-flite maker we had never heard about.

[stonemint]

The butting of the piping is so tight it is almost undetectable:

[stonemint]

The wool is actually better quality than my wartime Gendarmerie--I have to believe this is actual TR wool--it matches the wool of my overcoat even better than my own hat (the fake is on the bottom):

[stonemint]

The brown band is perfect in color and wool texture. This shot shows the butting on the lower band of piping:

[stonemint]

The hat has a Pekuro-style burnt-orange velvet stirndruckfrei feature. Sweatband is leather:

[stonemint]

Under the hood. Everything is attached correctly. The pasteboard is treated, and the gauze does not glow. I used a magnet, and the stiffener is (in part) metallic:

[stonemint]

These types use different attachments to the rear s/b--bows and in the case of these police hats, just thread. The lining is polished cotton (but I have seen them in silk):

[stonemint]

The Triple Serial #s:

I have seen them as "xv 921B"
and as "5vv347" (I am sure there are other lot #s)

[stonemint]

Here is the one Kurt posted awhile back--note the font, and the similar stirndruckfrei feature:

[stonemint]

OK, showtime. Here is Bobs visor:

[stonemint]

And another one of these fakes--an exact duplicate of Bob's, with one big distinction:

[stonemint]

The interior of Bobs--note there is no sweatdiamond:

[stonemint]

And the interior of the Manions duplicate--it is an ALTESTE!

This was sold as a repro by Manions last year. Although illegible in the pic, it does have the usual Alteste logo on the diamond, but the diamond is celluloid on this one.

I am speculating here, but most likely Studio Breuer's leftover stock of celluloid ran out, and they then went without sweatdiamonds, and then switched over to the later plastic ones.

[stonemint]

On a lot of Altestes, they use a celleon chincord instead of bullion. Bullion insignia is also rare on the altestes as well.
The cockade and eagle are real, left-over wartime stock.

In fact, I believe just about every part of this hat was left over wartime stock (unlike their later work). So its like a "parts dagger"--this hat has no cannibalized parts.