Prussian guard M15

USN

Well-known member
Hello all,

I have recently acquired and am working on restoring an M15 tunic issued to a man of the prussian guard however it has been converted for civilian wear. I was hoping someone might have some opinions on how I should go about the restoration since the belt supports have been removed (I do have the proper replacement ones) and am unsure as to exactly where they should be positioned on the rear of the tunic since I have seen them in different spots on different tunics. Also on whether or not to leave the rear strap on the tunic. There is much to be done and any advice would be appreciated! At the end of the day I intend to display this with my prussian guard pickelhaube and field cover since they are both dated early.

Thank you,
Will
 

Attachments

  • 20200329_122638.jpg
    20200329_122638.jpg
    2.9 MB · Views: 939
  • 20200329_122648.jpg
    20200329_122648.jpg
    2.6 MB · Views: 939
  • 20200329_122710.jpg
    20200329_122710.jpg
    3.6 MB · Views: 936
  • 20200329_122748.jpg
    20200329_122748.jpg
    2.7 MB · Views: 936
  • 20200329_122805.jpg
    20200329_122805.jpg
    2.9 MB · Views: 939
Hi Will,
That is a very nice piece of history you have there, but to be honest I think the belt supports are the least of your restoring challenges. Very unlikely that the upper breast pockets would have been added during the war, although not impossible if worn by an officer, and the lower pocket flaps have been replaced; in addition the front buttons should be hidden so the slits would have to be closed again (the original slits were in a piece of cotton, which is no longer present, located underneath the wool upper cloth). If you manage to do all that then I would certainly remove the rear-strap too.
Good luck with the restoration, please show your results.
Regards,
Lars
 
Oh I was aware of all of that I just figured the belt supports would be a good place to start considering I already had the buttons also the rear strap has a cotton backing to it that I had considered removing to use as the spot for the buttons.
 
Check out this site https://www.reenactor.net/ww1/morsels/fisher/tunic-1.htm I have a M'15 blouse that only had a back belt added, after looking into restoring it I decided to leave it the way it was.
 
Back
Top