Good evening Gents,
M-R's Thread on the General's Bergmutze caused me to take a closer look at this one that arrived yesterday. It also comes from a WAF member, and a rather distinguished one at that.
There are some things I like about it, but you know how you get that gut feeling that something just isn't right - like this isn't talking to me in an old smokey German voice from 1945.
The material is a heavy, almost winter-weight doe skin which seems OK and the lining is a superior grade of artificial silk - more like real silk actually. There is consistent faint soiling inside and out (which I know means nothing as that can be faked) and there is a nice clean area visible behind the sweatband and under the eagle's wings when slightly moved upwards.
Regarding the eagle, if this is a total hump job then I would expect they would try to make it as textbook as possible with a nice silver or gold flatwire eagle, but maybe that's part of the story on this one, make it a non-standard "upgrade" or personal preference piece.
Like the Bergmutze, the wire-mesh piping looks like it was applied by somebody who didn't make hats for a living, and the piping itself does not look to be fabricated like the silver piping you find on lower grade officer caps (wire-mesh affixed atop a linen or artificial silk band that usually serves as the area where the stitches go through).
I've looked at a ton of pics of general's wearing overseas caps and the width of the soutache does not scare me and it is applied perfectly.
So any opinions on this would be appreciated. I'd like to hope my insecurities about the quality and fidelity of fakes these days is just getting the better of me and all is OK.
Thanks in advance.
vr
Bob
M-R's Thread on the General's Bergmutze caused me to take a closer look at this one that arrived yesterday. It also comes from a WAF member, and a rather distinguished one at that.
There are some things I like about it, but you know how you get that gut feeling that something just isn't right - like this isn't talking to me in an old smokey German voice from 1945.
The material is a heavy, almost winter-weight doe skin which seems OK and the lining is a superior grade of artificial silk - more like real silk actually. There is consistent faint soiling inside and out (which I know means nothing as that can be faked) and there is a nice clean area visible behind the sweatband and under the eagle's wings when slightly moved upwards.
Regarding the eagle, if this is a total hump job then I would expect they would try to make it as textbook as possible with a nice silver or gold flatwire eagle, but maybe that's part of the story on this one, make it a non-standard "upgrade" or personal preference piece.
Like the Bergmutze, the wire-mesh piping looks like it was applied by somebody who didn't make hats for a living, and the piping itself does not look to be fabricated like the silver piping you find on lower grade officer caps (wire-mesh affixed atop a linen or artificial silk band that usually serves as the area where the stitches go through).
I've looked at a ton of pics of general's wearing overseas caps and the width of the soutache does not scare me and it is applied perfectly.
So any opinions on this would be appreciated. I'd like to hope my insecurities about the quality and fidelity of fakes these days is just getting the better of me and all is OK.
Thanks in advance.
vr
Bob
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