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
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
Comment