chamboid
Member
Just picked up a reasonable well preserved AN series jacket dating to 1943. The AN being meant as 'joint service' Army & Navy but was never picked up by the AAF. These jackets were produced for only 6 months by a number of manufacturers, and though Block had a reasonably sized M-422 contract there are not many AN-6552 jackets remaining.
The jacket itself is in overall good shape apart from the shoulders where it has been hung for too long in a closet without care. There is light cracking and flaking which I have tried to remedy with some oil and pecards. The rest of the jacket is very strong, H L Block is rumoured to have quite weak goatskin, and though this jacket is quite thin the second I own is very think and dense.
The mouton has faded to a nice blonde, as has the other in the same contract, and yellow US stamp still present under the collar. The original dark purple/brown knits are still in good shame though darned in a few places, and lining in exceedingly good shape, showing minimal signs of wear. Block jackets had quite a unique lining construction of two pleats running down the spine of the lining, and stitched underarm gusset air wholes on the lining and leather. Only few of the AN series jackets retained the pink rayon lining most switching to the more common brown.
The Blackened talon zip works very smoothly and still has most of its paint
Anyway here are some pictures
Here are the shoulder picture of the wear, if anyone has any trick on how to re-seal the top coat and stick down some of those little top coat flaps where it's flaking I'm all ears.
The jacket itself is in overall good shape apart from the shoulders where it has been hung for too long in a closet without care. There is light cracking and flaking which I have tried to remedy with some oil and pecards. The rest of the jacket is very strong, H L Block is rumoured to have quite weak goatskin, and though this jacket is quite thin the second I own is very think and dense.
The mouton has faded to a nice blonde, as has the other in the same contract, and yellow US stamp still present under the collar. The original dark purple/brown knits are still in good shame though darned in a few places, and lining in exceedingly good shape, showing minimal signs of wear. Block jackets had quite a unique lining construction of two pleats running down the spine of the lining, and stitched underarm gusset air wholes on the lining and leather. Only few of the AN series jackets retained the pink rayon lining most switching to the more common brown.
The Blackened talon zip works very smoothly and still has most of its paint
Anyway here are some pictures
Here are the shoulder picture of the wear, if anyone has any trick on how to re-seal the top coat and stick down some of those little top coat flaps where it's flaking I'm all ears.
