Shoulder boards... to each his own....

[Guest Rick Research]

They are paper... in cardboard boxes in the attic... or cellar... somewhere. Pre-internet Old People stuff!

[IrishGunner]

25 issues of Kaiserzeit, Vol II-XI, available on abebooks

http://www.abebooks.com/Kaiserzeit-Journal-Imperial-German-Military-Collectors/10427611399/bd

[Marcin L]

25 issues of Kaiserzeit, Vol II-XI, available on abebooks

http://www.abebooks.com/Kaiserzeit-Journal-Imperial-German-Military-Collectors/10427611399/bd

There are two issues available online (51 and 53). In this 53 (dated 1992), page 14, we can see "Questions Corner" and "From Chip Minx". Very nice! :-)

[Jock Auld]

Chris,

I prefer a pair of everything, even if they weren't issued in pairs.

These are the last handfull of imperial boards I got, I don't think they qualify as pairs since they seem to have different types of numerals and devices.

The grey ones are true pairs I suppose the last being Wiemar I guess.

I take what ever I can find these days.

Jock:)

[Chip]

I've been collecting shoulder insignia since 1962 or so and my ideas about this have changed over the years. When I was starting out and building my collection, I would gladly have broken up a pair of straps to get an example that I was needing. In later years, I came to regret that to some extent, both from a collecting aspect and from a historical one. Today, I would be against breaking up a pair.

Pairs take up much more room to display, so even though I have many pairs, I only display singles in my frames. The other halves sit in storage boxes.

Another factor is that during the war, the shoulder straps that were collected for intelligence and for the most part, the soldier souvenir straps, were taken as singles. The point being, that the vast majority of shoulder straps that were saved after the war (outside of Germany) were singles.

Chip

[Jock Auld]

Two more pairs, any ideas, parade obviously?

Jock:)

[Chip]

There are two issues available online (51 and 53). In this 53 (dated 1992), page 14, we can see "Questions Corner" and "From Chip Minx". Very nice! :-)

Marcin,

I was on the staff of Kaiserzeit starting in 1972. It was the dark ages of imperial collecting. We did our best. The first issue was run off on a Mimeograph machine! I have all of the issues, but it would take a month of Sundays to copy them all. Publication ended some time in the 1990s. At the end, I dropped out, as the new printer was a crook and was taking money and never producing anything.

Chip

[Chip]

Two more pairs, any ideas, parade obviously?

These are the width of the 1866 pattern, but I have never seen anything like them, with that patterned brocade in the center. If they are German military, this pattern was replaced in 1888 by what we normally think of as German officer's boards, that is, the cord type (Plattschnurr).

Chip