Tunic for Officer with Don Cossack

[djpool]

I am not saying any of the tunics on this thread are not original but younger collectors should be aware that when Angolias book first came out IMO the number of foriegn volunteer items appearing for sale tripled.

In the 70's you could buy a stripped officer's tunic for less than 100 dollars and and I personally know a lot of collectors made exotic tunics to fill holes in their collections. Many of these people passed away and I have seen some of their creations sold as original over the years.

This is something to keep in mind with any exotic tunics with shields, DAK, Sonderverband etc..

There are of course real ones but many of them were made after the War.

John,

Of course your correct. It doesn't just apply to rare tunics either.Lots of stripped tunics are restored with common insignia. In fact thats more common, since its difficult (but not impossible) to find the rare insignia. In the end every collector has to decide on there own whether insignia is wartime or postwar applied. Everyone has a different comfort level. I'm pretty comfortable with this acquisition. WR Jim

[Askold]

Fantastic display Jim! I like that you got a manekin with a mustashe and even thought of adding spurs to the boots, well done

[Ostfries]

reapplied insignia,

I am not saying any of the tunics on this thread are not original but younger collectors should be aware that when Angolias book first came out IMO the number of foriegn volunteer items appearing for sale tripled.

In the 70's you could buy a stripped officer's tunic for less than 100 dollars and and I personally know a lot of collectors made exotic tunics to fill holes in their collections. Many of these people passed away and I have seen some of their creations sold as original over the years.

This is something to keep in mind with any exotic tunics with shields, DAK, Sonderverband etc..

There are of course real ones but many of them were made after the War.

I couldn’t agree more, but like Jim also states, unfortunately not only with rare or exotic tunics, years ago I witnessed collectors strip there perfectly original and authentic EM Luftwaffe tunics to adjust NCO or even officers insignia to forfill in there need. Expect les then 20% of today’s tunics to have original applied insignias, for me personal no problem as long as the restoration is done in a proper way and with original insignia and thread. Unfortunately only three of my tunics have all insignia original to the tunic, I’m just a realistic collector that if I wanted all tunics to have original insignias applied there wouldn’t be much left to collect nowadays. Beautiful mannequin Jim.

[nakta]

Jim,
Fantastic display! I like the mannequin too. The display really stands out !

[djpool]

I'm back on a Cossack kick these days and have been checking out some of my Foreign Volunteer items. I've studied the Nametag in this tunic and its possible that the tunic belonged to Rittmeister d.R. Mattern commander of 2d Battalion, Don Cossack Cavalry Regiment 1. It might be wishful thinking, but if someone has a document signed by him or a picture of him it might help confirm it one way or the other. Thanks Jim

PS I hope the server gets well soon, its moving awful slowly these days.

[djpool]

Its been two years since my last post about this tunic at which time I thought it might belong to Captain dR Mattern, but had no proof. Forum member Rik just picked up a Soldbuch with some Mattern signatures and kindly sent me some scans. I did some comparisons which I included for comment. At first glance they don't appear to match. However if you follow the flow of his handwriting, all the signatures might have been done by the same person. Remember the cloth tag was signed in 1940 while the Soldbuch entries were done in 1943. Also remember the name tag is a pebbled cloth. Anyway I'm no expert in signatures and its obvious I have a personal interest in hoping the tunic belonged to Mattern. Any comments are appreciated. WR Jim

Signature on nametag
Signatures in Soldbuch-theres actually a third one I didn't show.

I'm back on a Cossack kick these days and have been checking out some of my Foreign Volunteer items. I've studied the Nametag in this tunic and its possible that the tunic belonged to Rittmeister d.R. Mattern commander of 2d Battalion, Don Cossack Cavalry Regiment 1. It might be wishful thinking, but if someone has a document signed by him or a picture of him it might help confirm it one way or the other. Thanks Jim

PS I hope the server gets well soon, its moving awful slowly these days.

[djpool]

First comparisons the top two signatures are from the tunic.

[djpool]

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