SS Visor - Old but NOT Real

[RobertE]

I am posting this as a reminder of the age of some of the replicas we're faced with these days - in this case, I'd wager about 60 years old. There are often times postings where headgear owners proclaim their items to be "over XX years old", but caps were being cranked out for occupation forces right away, as we know.

Like the early Alteste's, this cap has many original parts that went into the construction. The eagle and three-prong skull are original, along with the cap cord, bill, sweatband, band stiffener, and so on. The liner material and method of folding looks wartime as well.

The leather is dry-rotted, slight age crazing to the visor finish (NOT artificially applied by heat), two-tone fading to materials here and there - if this wasn't made as a General's cap sporting late cheap zink hardware and basic interior, it might be perched on someone's shelf right now. It's a small size.

An honest seller sold it to me on Craigslist for 50 USD - and for that, it's a good study piece. Just goes to show that aged parts, smell, and deterioration just show something is old - but not necessarily real.

regards, Robert

[RobertE]

some nice parts here...

[RobertE]

The celluloid is brittle, but not correct and unmarked

[RobertE]

real age...

[RobertE]

I hope this may help someone who is considering a purchase based primarily on the age of the item (it's been in his footlocker since the 1950's, this collector stopped adding items after 1962, ect).

regards, Robert

[BrianK]

Looks like an old Franky.

[erikq]

I dont like

[stonemint]

thanks for posting this.
It is actually an Alteste with the gold-silk lining.
Dr Breuer may be gone, but his wares will live on long after him.....

[RobertE]

Looks like an old Franky.

Brian, it is a ground-up fake that uses a lot of original materials, including the insignia. With the age, this is what makes it so dangerous - if it was not made up as a General's version, this would probably have passed for real in most collections.

My main point is that real old doesn't mean real cap. It is a posted as a rebuttal to the oft-heard statement along the lines of "well, unless they were faking these 60 years ago, this has to be real". I know you know this, but I thought it was an instructive example to post. Lots of real parts, just not real.

s/f Robert