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**Donald Abenheim** · 01-11-2006, 09:20 AM

Feldmuetzen Wahnsinn

Suum cuique, I guess. In my observation of all of this, an authentic cap of this kind, even in lousy shape, can easily command a hefty price. There is surely a school of collectors who revel in heavily worn material; and there is an even more outspoken and determined school of collectors for whom Feldmuetzen alte Art are the highest joy of fetid woolens. Such caps as this in perfect condition or even very good condition seldom appear. I know one collector at this moment desperate to secure a cap of this kind for a new Montur of his. I assume Mr. Hicks can do well with this piece, even with it as merely a relic kind of Dachbodenfund.

**billbert** · 01-11-2006, 05:34 PM

Some folks dont realize the value of a worn oriinal veteran piece VS a shiny nice fake..Billbert

**phild** · 01-11-2006, 08:59 PM

Well said billbert (and Donald), I would take a 100% period SS Officers crusher with a re-attached original to the cap visor any day over a questionable SS crusher. Most everyone that I have seen offered for sale since the the 1970s have been questionable.

A major dealer sold a nice (external condition) W-SS Officers Schirmutze for around 8k+ several years ago and it was completley missing the headband. As tough to find as W-SS Schirmutze are, I would say that you will find 25 or more of them (maybe 50) for sale for every real SS OFFICER's grade crusher that you find for sale. The rarity of this most classic associated pattern of SS headgear tends to make said restoration a very forgivable minus in my opinion.

**Donald Abenheim** · 01-11-2006, 09:57 PM

Jawohl

Grey SS cap are very rare and usually in pretty sad shape, as a matter of fact. So often when fate reveals them to be 110% authentic they look as if a platoon has already sat and sweated on them. So few are authentic, to be sure. I do recall the grey cap for $8,000 without the sweat band on the leading website. I had two wonderful grey ones (with everything...) in the early 1970s, which I would dearly like to retrieve from the pit of time. One of these cost $80 in 1 9 7 1. Tastes in this vary, but one thing I have learned from a half decade of these websites is the malicious animal magnetism of just this kind of cap. Wolfe-Hardin has a cap with a cloth visor and a very fetchting 1937 VA tag, but I shudder to think what such a piece would command in today's whacko market. This kind of thing is scarcely my cup of tea, but this piece at hand strikes me as original. At least it is better than the ones rotting somewhere else (quite literally...). In forty years of collecting, I have never seen one of these as if it came out of the clothing supply room. I am sure it will find a happy owner. But others diverge in their tastes and preferences, plainly.

**BenVK** · 01-12-2006, 04:53 AM

Here's an interesting photo showing a crusher (cloth visor I think) with a very similar eagle to Ed's cap. It even seems to be applied in the same way with a large amount of backing material visible. Can't remember where I got the photo, if it is yours, I hope you don't mind me posting it.

Attached Files

baum%20eicke.jpg (82.1 KB, 248 views)

**BenVK** · 01-12-2006, 04:57 AM

One of my all time favourite photos...again, sorry I can't remember where I got it.

Attached Files

KH_PRINZc.jpeg (30.3 KB, 248 views)

**Ed Hicks** · 01-12-2006, 08:03 AM

Two of the visors in this photo appear to be shiny and hard similar to the one with mine...also have cloth insignia...Great image. Thanks for showing it.

Ed

**Donald Abenheim** · 01-12-2006, 10:27 AM

Originally posted by BenVK

Here's an interesting photo showing a crusher (cloth visor I think) with a very similar eagle to Ed's cap. It even seems to be applied in the same way with a large amount of backing material visible. Can't remember where I got the photo, if it is yours, I hope you don't mind me posting it.

The figures here are Otto Baum (much of whose ephemera came up for auction in Germany and got dispersed...) and, of course, Theodor Eicke. One sees this grimace on his visage rather frequently. One could even start a thread about it, actually!

**Gary Wood** · 01-12-2006, 12:39 PM

Originally posted by Donald Abenheim

Theodor Eicke. One sees this grimace on his visage rather frequently. One could even start a thread about it, actually!

cheers
Gary

**Donald Abenheim** · 01-12-2006, 02:03 PM

Im Ernst

Originally posted by Gary Wood

cheers
Gary

A colleague has sent me some candid images of Eicke from about 1937 or so (maybe he will post them somehow...), and Eicke has the same nasty look on his face in rather less difficult circumstances than fighting with Ivan four years later.... This face of his is anything other than the visage of a Prussian nobleman, I'll tell you that, nor does one find there the idealized gaze of the Nordic superman as found in the sketches of Wolff Willrich.

**Bob Hritz** · 01-12-2006, 07:17 PM

Ed,

Wonderful hat worthy of having the visor re-shaped and resewn. I would love to own that cap, as would many collectors. I find myself greatly attracted to material that the soldiers enhanced to their own fancy.

Bob Hritz

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