Polizei Original Hand Embroidered Police NCO Sleeve Eagle

[W.Unland]

Hello,

This will be of interest only to die hard police collectors I'm afraid. As we know Police sleeve eagles were either machine woven or machine embroidered for NCO grade personnel. Hand embroidery was limited to silver and gold wire on officer grade insignia.

The sleeve insignia presented here appears from the obverse to be a typical machine embroidered fire department sleeve insignia of a know pattern.

However when one looks at the reverse it is clear that this insignia is entirely HAND EMBROIDERED.

This is the only such hand made NCO eagle that I have ever seen. It has been suggested that it might have been a manufacturer's proof, or master pattern. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that the edges have been dyed black so that no white support material will show from the front or sides, an uncommon small detail that I have only seen once before, on an exceptional officer's eagle. Of course it is equally possible that some volunteer fireman's wife made this for him at her kitchen table.

The details are quite striking, and clearly the maker was very skilled.

The waviness in the wings is due to stretching of the base material and not an unsteady hand.

This insignia is presented to demonstrate that an open mind must be kept when evaluating civil police insignia. The quality, pattern, and even size variations seem endless, particularly with regard to these fire department related birds. There were thousands of different fire departments and each had its own insignia. It is not hard to imagine that many were locally made.

Although there have been some hand embroidered reproductions on the market the last few years I feel VERY confident that this is an authentic period produced insignia. It is certainly one of a kind.

Regards,

William Unland

Edited February 8, 2013 by Nick

[Chris Boonzaier]

Hi,

how small are towns with their own names on the eagles usually?

Wegberg was small back then maybe ans was not worth a production run in a factory?

[W.Unland]

Hello,

There was no minimum size of unit to have name embroidered fire insignia, in fact, ALL should be named. Most fire eagles where purchased "blank" from a supplier and the name was added later, either by a tailor or unit itself. Of course large cities had the maker add the name at the time of manufacture. Many volunteer fire eagles have chain stitched or even hand sewn names. The colors of the thread used for the names often does not even match the eagle. This is very common. Since these wearers were mostly volunteers, I think naming was a matter of pride as much as regulation.

Here is a factory blank:

And the same pattern with name added:

And lastly an eagle with a locally added chain stitched script name:

What makes this example VERY unususal is that the eagle itself is hand embroidered.

Regards,

W.Unland

Edited January 14, 2013 by W.Unland

[Chris Boonzaier]

It is indeed fantastic work! Really not worth the trouble to go to tha much effort to make a fake!

I see the logic in blanks with a fill in the name section...