Ok, so I've gotten acquainted early this year with this dealer whom I've made two purchases from and have been very pleased. When I was in France and Belgium in June, I spent time with him at a private party and he even provided a private viewing of his museum collection to my friends and me, which was very generous and quite spectacular. But as with anyone knew, I reserve some degree of caution and skepticism, as well as being mindful of any personal associations that are dubious. I have heard nothing bad about this dealer and want to believe he's a straight shooter.
I was looking at the cap in the subject line of this post on his website and found it to be very interesting, with nothing jumping out as a red flag. It is described as follows:
"M41 Heer tropical Panzergrenadier officers field cap. Factory produced officers model with pipping. Constructed by well known firm « Robert Lubstein Berlin 1941 » and size marked « 59 ». The cap has been period artificially bleached to white as common practice in the African Theater. Shows plenty of use, fraying, and a few repairs along the bill. All insignia on this cap is original and factory applied with the eagle machine stitched along the top edge and then flipped over and hand sewn. The cockade is straight machine stitched. The lime green soutache was carefully removed per regulations in 1942 leaving only an olive drab shadow wear the cap material had not faded from washing. Typical red cotton linen lining present with evidence of field use. Discolored around the perimeter and some loose stitching along the back. Stitching is also a little loose along the underside of the bill but a nice feature is the color of the original fabric where the stitching was tight than came loose. The air vents have detached slightly from the lining but still tight on the caps exterior. Truly a fine and rare example of a used officers field tropical cap."
https://www.lux-military-antiques.co...-field-cap.htm
As I was scrolling through the detailed photos, which are extremely good and to this dealer's credit, I was extremely perplexed by one image (the last one I've attached here) that depicts the green soutache fully intact in the lower right corner, when all of the other images match the description and feature evidence of a green soutache being removed.
You can view all of the images on the website link I provided, but I am including a couple here now. At first, I thought this one image of the intact soutache was from another cap and just erroneously uploaded to this specific cap; I've seen this sort of thing before on other dealer sites and realize we are all human and make mistakes. But, after careful review, it is indeed evident that all photos are from the same cap as the parts all match up and the tiny dots (stains) on the fold match perfectly in number, size, and location with the image where the soutache appears.
The question is, can anyone suggest any good reason why I should not conclude something being very wrong with what I see? It sure appears as though the soutache was removed for marketing the cap and I can think of no reason why anyone, especially someone as advanced as this dealer, would ever remove an original soutache for good intent, but I have an open mind.
If I did not have any personal affinity for this dealer, I'd say a fake soutache was added for effect prior to the aging of the cap, then it was removed, leaving just enough evidence so as to reflect the desirable soutache color but not enough so as to be detectable as fake. And this one stray image was carelessly overlooked and erroneously uploaded to the website.
Please tell me I am wrong and that I have missed something. Thank you!
I was looking at the cap in the subject line of this post on his website and found it to be very interesting, with nothing jumping out as a red flag. It is described as follows:
"M41 Heer tropical Panzergrenadier officers field cap. Factory produced officers model with pipping. Constructed by well known firm « Robert Lubstein Berlin 1941 » and size marked « 59 ». The cap has been period artificially bleached to white as common practice in the African Theater. Shows plenty of use, fraying, and a few repairs along the bill. All insignia on this cap is original and factory applied with the eagle machine stitched along the top edge and then flipped over and hand sewn. The cockade is straight machine stitched. The lime green soutache was carefully removed per regulations in 1942 leaving only an olive drab shadow wear the cap material had not faded from washing. Typical red cotton linen lining present with evidence of field use. Discolored around the perimeter and some loose stitching along the back. Stitching is also a little loose along the underside of the bill but a nice feature is the color of the original fabric where the stitching was tight than came loose. The air vents have detached slightly from the lining but still tight on the caps exterior. Truly a fine and rare example of a used officers field tropical cap."
https://www.lux-military-antiques.co...-field-cap.htm
As I was scrolling through the detailed photos, which are extremely good and to this dealer's credit, I was extremely perplexed by one image (the last one I've attached here) that depicts the green soutache fully intact in the lower right corner, when all of the other images match the description and feature evidence of a green soutache being removed.
You can view all of the images on the website link I provided, but I am including a couple here now. At first, I thought this one image of the intact soutache was from another cap and just erroneously uploaded to this specific cap; I've seen this sort of thing before on other dealer sites and realize we are all human and make mistakes. But, after careful review, it is indeed evident that all photos are from the same cap as the parts all match up and the tiny dots (stains) on the fold match perfectly in number, size, and location with the image where the soutache appears.
The question is, can anyone suggest any good reason why I should not conclude something being very wrong with what I see? It sure appears as though the soutache was removed for marketing the cap and I can think of no reason why anyone, especially someone as advanced as this dealer, would ever remove an original soutache for good intent, but I have an open mind.
If I did not have any personal affinity for this dealer, I'd say a fake soutache was added for effect prior to the aging of the cap, then it was removed, leaving just enough evidence so as to reflect the desirable soutache color but not enough so as to be detectable as fake. And this one stray image was carelessly overlooked and erroneously uploaded to the website.
Please tell me I am wrong and that I have missed something. Thank you!
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