If they were white they were soaked in tea etc. Note the thread holding the tress down is the exact same color like it also absorbed whatever stained the piping.
If they were white they were soaked in tea etc. Note the thread holding the tress down is the exact same color like it also absorbed whatever stained the piping.
After reviewing the photos that was exactly my initial thought as well. I suspect these are reproductions.
Ken, can you pull back the wool and look at the piping which has not been exposed to the light? Is it the same shade as the wool which has been exposed? If these have been soaked in tea (which the fakers have been known to do to simulate age) it should all be the same shade with no fading.
AUTHOR OF:
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GERMAN ARMY SHOULDER STRAPS AND BOARDS - 1933-1945
They look like quite a few tailor made boards I have seen with either Luftwaffe or Weimar period tresse. That cord type piping is usually found on high end tailor made pieces. It looks like dirty white that may have been exposed to a smoker. I have had many an item with that brown patina on them because the item was in a long time smoke filled environment. There is a white edge visible right next to the tresse that did not get the same exposure. The felted wool green base is common on tailor made insignia too, sometimes it's used for the board's underside.
I say original early custom made boards with dirty white piping.
Second the motion on originality. Seem to be of the boiled wool variety, which would indicate tailor manufacture as it is softer and overall deemed a higher quality. Also it would make sense on the tresse as well as the tailor would most likely have had larger stock of this pattern even after the changeover to the diamond pattern hence some later straps of tailor manufacture with the checkerboard tresse. Could definately be nicotine/smoke residue, also in places that arent dusted well with smoking the dust tends to turn up a off reddish color and settles everywhere.
I would want to see these in hand but I still have questions. The piping looks artifically aged to me. I have examples of smoke stained items and when staining is that dark it usually is more yellow brown. This is the perfect color of tea or from bitters and the tress yellows to a tan yellow as well.
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