Description
Product Description: This SS Wiking Collar Tab is an extremely rare piece of SS volunteer insignia. Very few of these are known to exist, and this pattern of collar tab is absent from the vast majority of even specialized collections. This was intended for wear by volunteers in SS Division Wiking. It features a machine embroidered Viking ship, neatly executed in silver-gray thread with black accents. The embroidery has a light patina and shows slight surface wear but is completely intact. This emblem is embroidered on a base of very nice black wool badge cloth that shows slight wear and soiling. The internal buckram stiffener is present but not visible. On the reverse, this SS Wiking Collar Tab retains a completely intact, correct SS RZM tag. The tag is serial numbered and is stamped in purple ink with a maker code that is difficult to make out. The folded edges of the black wool are neatly joined with some long hand stitches in black thread. There is some slight fraying to the edges of the wool at the corners. These rarely appear on the market in any condition. This SS Wiking Collar Tab rates as excellent plus.
Historical Description: Regulations for the SS Collar Tab went through quite an evolution in just a short 16-year period. The first SS Collar Tabs were introduced in 1929 by Heinrich Himmler as part of the newly introduced SS uniform code. Initially, tabs were worn by both lower rank SS men and their senior leaders. Lower ranks would wear a rank tab as well as a numbered unit identification tab, with senior leaders wearing their rank tabs on both collars. In 1933 the well-known “SS” runic tab was adopted by Hitler’s personal bodyguard detachment, the “Leibstandarte” or “LAH”. The LAH used this runic tab in lieu of the numerical unit identification tab to identify them as members of the elite unit protecting the “Führer”. In 1934 the runic “SS” tabs were again adopted for use by the early “SS-VT” units. This adoption eventually led to the widespread use of SS runic tabs by German Divisions; the later non-German volunteer units would not be permitted to wear the runes, and bore their own unit designed patch instead. SS Collar tabs can be found in an extraordinary variety of numbers, designs, and pipings depending on unit and rank, from hand-embroidered tabs worn by officers to mass produced embroidered and machine woven types that were used on combat uniforms.
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