Dear David, esteemed "violin.." You have the great fortune of an exceptional piece, with character and patina sufficient for twenty caps. Your photos are also first rate and your piece is also identical in its key traits to its black twins in their number. The cap on the Shea site may be a variant; it may not be. Maybe an insidious and cunning fake, modeled after your cap! Ein Witz... Worse has happened, but Shea himself is an advanced SS collector, is he not? I cannot generalize about this cap without seeing it in person and now it is on its way to its new owner. Perhaps he will post further images; perhaps it will vanish never to be seen again. I would note, though, that in the Heinrich Hoffmann volume published in 1937, Hitler abseits vom Alltag, there is a cap identical to the Shea piece on a page (unnumbered...) where AH is greeting the multitude at the foot of the drive to the Berghof. The cap is grey, with same Hussarentotenkopf. As concerns tags, I have seen more than one authentic black SS cap without its tag, which, somehow, was lost in the fullness of time. The RFSS tag was phased out ca. 1938, I think. I believe it was in use for about four years, i.e. 1934 'til 1938. I believe the bevo tags generally went by the boards about then, but this is a guess. Because the sweat diamond is gone, the RFSS tag may also have fallen out. Who knows?
Once more, we all rejoice in your authentic cap and thank you for showing it to us. Someday you must get all of Eberhard's file from the BA Berlin and share it with us.
