Bulgaria Bulgarian Naval officer dress belt

[Theodor]

Hi guys, finally got a complete one, scarce Naval officer dress belt! :cheers: The Bulgarian Royal fleet was small, the officers were few, so the naval uniforms and stuff are not easy to find. Still have not managed to find a visor, it's on my wish list, lets hope!!!

For now - a nice dress belt! :cheers: :cheers:

[Theodor]

It came with the officer's board. Sadly only a single.

[Theodor]

And that's not all - the belt quite completed my Dress Belt Series :cheers: All main types present, only one variation missing - I think from this collection only a golden B is missing /the belt with the silver letter B is more rare, but I already have it, now hunting for the golden one/! Aren't they nice :cheers:

[hunyadi]

Ok - now I have evny! That is a fantastic collection! Lets see more!

Can you provide any details about the various types of belts. (why they have the various lions, letters, etc...) I have not seen much of these at all excpet what I see on Ebay of course.

Edited June 1, 2009 by hunyadi

[Guest Rick Research]

What rank is the shoulder board? By the Russian model, that would be a Captain 3rd Rank-- Korvettenkapit?n to the Germans?

[Theodor]

The rank is Kapitan-Leitenant. This is equal to the army rank of Major. Nowadays it is Kapitan 3rd Rank, but in royal times /until 1951/ it was Kapitan-Leitenant.

The next ranks were called Kapitan 2nd rank and Kapitan 1st rank.

Do not know how it compares to the Russian and the German ranks

For the belts, these were introduced in 1936, with the Order that described the new uniforms. The lion belt was for most branches. The gold plated was the most common - infantry, artillery, doctors, labour forces, etc. etc. The silver plated lion was for cavalry, engineers and probably some other smaller branch.

The airmen got their own belt, with propeller. The seamen got their own belt, with anchor.

The belt with the royal letter B is still a mystery to me. Many people call it "general's belt". And probably that's what it is - a dress belt for Generals. The Silver belt is known as scarcer than the Gold belt. There's some logic in that - if it is really a General's belt, then indeed there would be much less generals from Cavalry, Engineers and etc, compared to Infantry, Artillery and etc. Whatever the truth, I have seen only my silver belt and one collector has a golden B belt. Haven't seen more so far!

Finally, in my photos there are four golden belts with lions - they are all the same, same purpose, but there is difference in detail. For example, on one of the belts, the lion is riveted to the background plate - two piece belt. And the other belts are one piece. And among the one-piece belts, there is minor difference in the background pattern, the shape and details of the lion, foliage and etc - different workshops, slightly different details.

Edited June 2, 2009 by Theodor

[Theodor]

Back i the naval belt, here is some navy ceremony, with the Commander, admiral Variklechkov. He wears such belt, but the photos are too small to show good details.

[Theodor]

the other photo