Heer & Kriegs Cloth Eagles

[Skip Pickett]

Hello everyone:
I picked up these cloth eagles from a picker I see every now and then. Right from the start I was uncertain. Are these good? I know enough to get in trouble, as the saying goes. No-glow under a blacklight.

Before posting on the e-stand, I want to be sure. Thanks in advance!
Skip

[Richard T]

Only the lower left eagle is good IMO

[Mark_K]

Hi Skip,

A few tell-tale features jump out from these eagles, which I only know because helpful folk in this forum - primarily Fred Green, many thanks Fred! - taught me.

On the top two eagles, the biggest giveaway are the four horizontal feathers (in red boxes). On breast eagles, there are always five, as highlighted in the yellow boxes on the silver flatwire eagle (which I think is a 100% original piece). Easy rule to remember: on this kind of bevo-woven eagle, breast eagles always have five of these horizontal feathers, and the smaller version, made for caps, always have four.

The colour scheme of the top left eagle is unlike any original pieces I have seen. A blue eagle on white is fine, but I have never seen one manufactured on a green backing roll.

The design of the bottom eagle just looks 'wrong', the torso, head, and neck in particular, when compared to the original silver flatwire eagle that is above it on the left.

[Mark_K]

The reverse of cloth eagles can often be more revealing than the front when it comes to assessing originality, and there are a few more pointers that I can pass on, which other collectors passed on to me.

These flatwoven eagles should not have the 'saw-tooth' stitching outside the fold line (outer edge) of the eagle, as arrowed in yellow in the photo below.

On the original army eagle shown below, there are no 'saw-teeth' outside the edge of the eagle (highlighted by the orange arrows).

[Mark_K]

Having said that there should not be any saw-tooth stitching outside the edge of these flat-woven eagles, I need to mention that original eagles do sometimes have a sort of tube that runs along the top edge of the wings, which is an original construction feature. It is shown below on the reverse of a kriegsmarine eagle, and then on some army flatwire eagles.

I hope this is useful, and as I said before, many thanks to all the forum members who shared their knowledge with me.

[Fred Green]

Mark,

Spot on!!

Fred

Thanks for the kind words!

[airborne_steve]

Very well said.

[Skip Pickett]

Thanks

Awesome info! Amazing how much there is to know and I appreciate the considerate sharing. Back to the seller these go!
Thanks,
Skip