I asked a question about this piece a while ago (on whether or not the go for the auction) and it finally arrived! I’m very happy with it, a nice addition!
Having had a look around of it, I’ve found what seems to be an ‘F’ on the back interior rim, some stamp in the metal on the chinstrap buckle piece in the space between it and the shell (hence the bad photo!) and I seem to have unearthed what may be the original WW2 paint. It seems to have three layers, the exterior paint (no idea on that) post war olive (seen on the interior) and the original paint (see in some photos of the interior)
Hi, showing some pictures of my latest addition to the collection. It’s a Heer M42 I picked up from an Italian collector. It has some wear (but no mothing I can see), but what I really like is that the eagle and collar patches are attached with same thread that the tunic is made with, hence I believe the insignia to be wartime applied, and the wear likely wartime, something I’ve been looking for, for a while! Also, it didn’t break the bank (i.e not US dealer prices - no offence to US dealers!) which makes a change for me anyway.
There is a seam on a sleeve that has come away, but it doesn’t show when displayed, so I’ll probably leave that as it is. There are a few repairs made with a blue-black thread, they are quite ‘functional’, I wonder if even wartime? All the buttons match and are originally applied (marked "JFS 40" for Josef Felix & Sohne of Gablonz), except for the bottom one at the front, which is a replacement and a decent match, and there is one collar liner button missing, but I don’t think I’ll be losing any sleep over those!
It came with a pair of M36 type Infantry Unteroffizier shoulder straps which are plausible without NCO collar tress (field promotion, no time for unit tailor to add NCO tress etc), but I felt unlikely as there are no award loops and I might expect an NCO of that rank to at least have an Infantry Assault badge. The seller bought it from another collector, who in turn had bought it from the Italian dealer "Der Alter Art" (Stefano Borghi, incidentally he is also the Hermann Historica representative in Italy), and as luck would have it he still had the pictures on his website!
When sold there it had basic Infantry EM boards on, so it’s possible that the intermediate owner had changed the boards. Of course after all this time who knows how many times boards could have been changed?
I’m always interested in the history of artefacts and contacted Stefano at "Der Alter Art" to ask if he recalled any history with the tunic, on the grounds that if you don’t ask you don’t get! He very kindly replied, only that he recalled that it was sourced in Germany. What a pity that more information is not preserved when these items change hands.
My father purchased this fez back in 2008. All examples of the SS Handschar fez have cloth insignia and a slightly rounded top. The outside is pretty toasty, and the tassel is barely hanging on, but it’s a neat item. The photo was with the hat; it has a flat top, but no metal insignia. Also, if anyone knows what language is printed on the inside, that would get me started with some kind of a translation.
