Shoulder Boards

[Alfred]

Hello,

what do you think about these shoulder boards. Are they soviet made or Bulgarian?

Never saw them made in this way, only saw pieces with metal badges and not made as embroidery.

best regards and thanks Andreas

[DougD]

Alfred,

Look Soviet to me, at least in design; I have seen embroidered rank insignia boards now and then (just sold a set, 1980's, for a rifles colonel)...but never this many together, all in perfect shape, and with all insignia embroidered. Might just be a collection someone put together. Would love to have in hand before making up my mind on them.

DougD

[Alfred]

Thanks Doug. I have bought them. When i have them in hand I will post better pictures.

best regards
Andreas

[Alfred]

Here are better pictures of the shoulder boards.
The boards are unused, very thick and very hard made.

best regards
Andreas

[Alfred]

and the other one

[Alfred]

and one airforce board

[Jeffrey Meffert]

I'm not one of those e-experts who will claim that anything I haven't personally seen before is a fake. But has anyone ever seen supply officer boards with embroidered corps device? (H&S plus star) I have a VOSO tunic with embroidered stars but even on that one the corps device is metal. What also bothers me is that the construction of all of them is identical enough to say they all came from the same maker. So the question is: Same maker from the late forties or same maker more recently? And if we are saying from late forties, why is there not even a little bit of tarnish on the silver of the stars or the fabric around them? (There actually is much more "bleeding" of tarnish into the fabric than this picture shows)

[DougD]

Have to agree with Jeff...the boards themselves look good, but the insignia...well, it's difficult to say, near perfect, multiple sets, etc. Maybe they were a group made by a tailor at the time and kept as samples? For me there is not an easy answer to these. If they were mine I'd probably put them in the closet and see what can be learned in the next few years about them.

[Alfred]

Here is another shoulder board. I bought this one 10 years ago! on german ebay.
This one looks used.

At this time I thought, that it maybe an Austrian or German production after the war when soviet troops occupied Austria and parts of Germany.

best regards
Andreas

[DougD]

That's a great board; I agree with you, has the look of early postwar German made. Really nice.