Marshal's Uniform Fake or Genuine?

[vikingraider1]

Currently for sale on Ebay...
Fake or Genuine?

[DougD]

Having had quite a few of these M1943 'marshals' through my hands the past 7 years i can say the following:

The tunic looks fine, but its often never the problem. The boards are where they go bad , so to speak. It would be imposible to judge this grey semi formal tunic without looking at the boards. The seller should provide overhead shots of the boards to see the details.

So, its a shot in the dark without seeing the boards.

DougD

[vikingraider1]

shoulderboard

[DougD]

On all the ones i have seen ( see the shot i have in a sepeate thread about a great collection shot) and the ones in the new Zueghaus article by Tseplenkov and Stepanov, all the boards have a common spacing between the star and the state seal and the star and the edge of the board. These boards have much much more space between the star and the edge then all the ones I have seen, while at the same time these boards have almost no space between the star and state seal.

That would concern me, though I would not draw any more conclusions without first inspecting them.

DougD

[slava1stclass]

Beyond the points Doug raises, I'm not particularly pleased with the quality of embroidery on the Soviet state "Gerb" or seal - specifically the all-cloth nature of the "Gerb's" embroidery. Considering that this particular pattern shoulder board was only worn by 16 MSUs, as well as the fact that the Soviets were not known to pinch kopeks when it became a matter of cost (think of the platinum, gold and silver in their orders and medals), this set of boards leaves much to be desired.

In direct comparison, please note the below board. The difference in quality is compelling. The "Gerb" is of extremely high-quality embroidery and incorporates multi-colored sequins in the wheat sheafs, the hammer and sickle and the rising sun. As an example of this set's exquisite embroidery, there are actually 13 individual rays of light emanating from each sun sewn in gold sequin embroidery! Given this, the above boards pale in comparison. The only all-cloth embroidery on the below set of "Gerbs" is found on the 11 banner red ribbon, the red star at the top of the "Gerb" and the globe - everything else is embroidered in fine sequins.

Whereas the embroidery on the above "Gerb" might be appropriate on a set of M1943 pattern MSU field shoulder boards, it is in no way in keeping with the extremely high quality associated with the M1945 VP MSU uniform.

Judge for yourself.

Regards,

slava1stclass