Soviet NKVD caps

[russiamilitaria]

Would this cap come from a "reputable dealer" located in NJ?

Hi! What?"reputable dealer" are you spoken about?

[Daredevil]

well, since i am being talked about by an "expert" located in Russia (who seems to know a lot about everything; must be nice), who likes to declare this cap a repro, i feel i should respond..the cap was sold to Nack as real, but postwar, with a very questionable stamp...I do not really post here but since something i sold is being questioned by someone who has never had the cap in their hands, i felt the need to respond. The cap is NOT one of the current junkers being made, as detailed in the 'other' forum. It was sold years ago as a good postwar cap to use on display, is real (as others here have even stated), but probably had the stamp added to make it look war time.

The "reputable" guy in NJ.

[Nack]

well, since i am being talked about by an "expert" located in Russia (who seems to know a lot about everything; must be nice), who likes to declare this cap a repro, i feel i should respond..the cap was sold to Nack as real, but postwar, with a very questionable stamp...I do not really post here but since something i sold is being questioned by someone who has never had the cap in their hands, i felt the need to respond. The cap is NOT one of the current junkers being made, as detailed in the 'other' forum. It was sold years ago as a good postwar cap to use on display, is real (as others here have even stated), but probably had the stamp added to make it look war time.

The "reputable" guy in NJ.

Yes -- the cap was sold to me as post-war, and as I stated in about every post, I wasn't concered about authenticity. I was, however, fishing to see what others thought of the date of the stamp. Ok, the stamp is wierd, I agree. But, the date looks like 1948, and it seems pointless to fake a stamp that isnt wartime (maybe though it was intended to be somewhat ambiguous so you could argue it is wartime, but now we are getting into the realm of a conspiracy theory...) .Anyway, the wear on the cap is rather genuine-looking, and considering we aren't talking about a marshal's cap or anything, it seems to me that this is a 40s'50s cap that maybe has a spurious stamp. In any event, it fits the part it was intended to play.

[Ed_Haynes]

This sort of snarly tone we've seen here is a major reason why there are few uniforms posted here. Sad. Admittedly, they are a minefield, but the attitude of many collectors (who I won't further characterise) that "they know and no one else does but they'd never show any examples or any evidence" is, at best, off-putting. At worse, it is quite ungentlemanly, or worse.

[Guest Rick Research]

True, true. As but an illustrative example, here are two images of THE SAME CAP-- a KGB officer's wool visor cap dated 1954 updated with the M1955 cockade:

The upper image is crisp and sharp and clear-- and yet the colors are washed out almost air force sky blue and brown. The crappy blurry wiggly lower image at least gets the cactus green and blueberry blue real colors accurately.

So what does a SCAN of the one--without the other--actually "prove?"

I have NO idea why uniforms are so argumentative a specialty, but it does REALLY make a difference between IMAGES of items and actually having them IN HAND.

[Nack]

Nack,

Somehow, I had previously missed this thread. Having a close and careful look at your NKVD cap, I must say that I am far from enthused with it. It has all the trademarks of local workshop production. Compare with the one RussiaMilitaria has just posted, the differences are glaring.

Would this cap come from a "reputable dealer" located in NJ?

Marc

Not to drag ths out any further, but since I'm still working to educate myself (and maybe some others can benefit from my questions), are the differences you are talking about between the caps in the shape? I see that the top of my cap is smaller and tighter, if you will, and RussiaMilitaria's is bigger and more floppy. The materials seriously look pretty much exactly the same to me.

Edited September 9, 2008 by Nack

[Wild Card]

Gentlemen.

Somehow, I seem to have missed this thread until now. I must admit that I could probably never sort out exactly what is good, what is bad, what is good but... . While I find uniforms and hats to be exceptionally interesting, I have never ?taken the leap?. I do have to say though, that of everything posted, I do find that leather cap in post #23 to be absolutely irresistible.

Congratulations to all on your fine items,

Wild Card

[Belaruski]

Rick makes a very good point about actually handling items rather than judging photos. For example almost every cloth item looks fake if you use flash, or too much light on a white background etc.

Nack's blue topped cap being a fine example, ins ome pics I like the colour of the blue wool, and in others I think no...

Like Richie said, there are no experts just opinions based on what we can see.