Rare Goatskin Dubow AC 27798 size46

[Roughwear]

Some months ago I bought this superb size 46 Dubow from the AC 27798 contract. The contract was awarded on 25th April 1942 and 50,000 were made. Most of the surviving jackets appear to have been made from horsehide, and therefore goatskin examples are quite rare. This one has been repainted a dark seal brown. It has been done very well, either in an air depot(most likely) or possibly back in the Dubow factory. There is not the normal seepage on the lining and zip tape. Many re-painted A2s are prone to flaking and the paint can literally skin the original surface. Fortunately this is not the case with this jacket. The goatskin is supple and robust with no decay, and has great character too.

Apart from the re-paint it is 100% original and clearly was only worn carefully in the War. The Crown zip is just perfect. The leather zip puller even appears to be original! The lining is in great condition with very minor wear at the neck.

The waistband and the wristlets had a few small moth nips which I have repaired.

As a size 46 it is almost the same size as my near mint size 44 horsehide version featured last year on this section of the forum. Sadly although I have found documentary references to the wartime owner I can't establish where he served.

 

[CBI]

another super find. Interesting in goat! great details, love the zipper!

congrats as always with these!!!!!

 

[eckhartus]

Wow. this one is superb ! Love the zip too.

 

[Roughwear]

Thanks guys. Often Crown zips on Dubows have been replaced as they were never the most robust zip used in the War! Talons are the way to go if you want a durable zip IMO.

 

[WBOONE]

looks great on you--Do you put any leather treatment on the jackets or leave them as they are ?

 

[oose]

Lovely jacket Andrew, is it Charlie E Reaves who died it Korea December 2, 1950, which may explain the pristine condition of the jacket.
https://www.vetfriends.com/memorial/hon ... NZw-PmsUms

All the best
Stu

 

[Roughwear]

Thanks Stu for the link. I also came across the very same Charlie E Reaves, but doubt it is the same guy as he was a Cpl in the US army. Of course he may have been in the USAAF in the War and later enlisted in the army for the Korean conflict. I have found three Charlie E Reaves listed in the Enlistment records.

 

[Dr H]

Is that the one that I was bidding on, Andrew?
Good to see that your concerns about the surface finish were unfounded.
Not a bargain in the end, but nevertheless a very nice jacket.

 

[Roughwear]

Is that the one that I was bidding on, Andrew?
Good to see that your concerns about the surface finish were unfounded.
Not a bargain in the end, but nevertheless a very nice jacket.

True, Ian, but a jacket that turned out to be far better than the Ebay listing. If only the under bidder had avoided the auction altogether!

 

[Dr H]

If only the under bidder had avoided the auction altogether!

Yes, he was a little persistent...

 

[Roughwear]

True!

 

[Roughwear]

looks great on you--Do you put any leather treatment on the jackets or leave them as they are ?

The goatskin has been conditioned with Pecards.

 

[Juanito]

Andrew,

So...I am considering the Dubow. While I am not a fan of goatskin or redyes, I don't have an example of this contract and this one looks to be in very nice shape.

As far as the leather goes it is consistently supple throughout the jacket? The Knopf as you mentioned is well preserved, however the left sleeve is a little dry compared to the rest of the jacket--nothing to be worried about, but inconsistent.

Any dry areas on the Dubow?

By the way, do you know who the cuffs and waistband came from on the Knopf? I have a couple of jackets that need replacements and the one on the Knopf are great.

Thanks,

Jon

 

[Silver Surfer]

nice one, andrew. as is usual with dubow, your goatie is a size smaller then marked, as seen on your "as worn" pic. i have a goatie 27798 that is tagged a size 42, but in reality, fits as a size 40. i would posit that the redye "painted" a-2s were depot jobs, and the ones that have the redye, using actual dye were sent back to the contractor , and the work done was always of a much higher calber then the depot jobs. often you will see a factory-contractor redyed a-2 where much of the dye has worn off, thus revealing the lighter russet underneath. btw: i have had redyed a-2s that were redyed with russet dye. so far as i can tell, these russet redyed a-2s were pre and early war jackets that were sent back to the contractors early in the war period, as against later war jackets that were dyed in the darker brown [seal] color, and mostly depot jobs.

 

[Roughwear]

Andrew,

So...I am considering the Dubow. While I am not a fan of goatskin or redyes, I don't have an example of this contract and this one looks to be in very nice shape.

As far as the leather goes it is consistently supple throughout the jacket? The Knopf as you mentioned is well preserved, however the left sleeve is a little dry compared to the rest of the jacket--nothing to be worried about, but inconsistent.

Any dry areas on the Dubow?

By the way, do you know who the cuffs and waistband came from on the Knopf? I have a couple of jackets that need replacements and the one on the Knopf are great.

Thanks,

Jon

Jon,

I believe as Vic says this one was re-dyed in the factory, not in a depot as the colour has not seeped on to the lining or zip tape. It is supple throughout with no dry areas.

 

[unclegrumpy]

As far as researching the name in this jacket, I think it will be difficult. The name tag is not a type you typically see used in military clothing. It is a civilian style used in the 1950's and 1960's.

I had the same tags in all my clothing when I went to summer camp in the 1960's....I have seen them used in other applications as well. Back in the day, there was often a requirement that you have your clothing marked when you went away somewhere. This was common in military schools, the boy scouts, college dorms, and other similar situations. That is one of the reasons we often see surplus military gear that was marked up with peoples names....they were required to...I was in the scouts.

 

[Silver Surfer]

no doubt, unc. however, i have seen all manner of name strip ids and name tags. i have owned and have seen this type of sewn in the liner strip on original wwll a-2s that had matching names on sewn on leather name tags. furthermore, i have seen cloth named laundry strips, as well as large, small, printed, written, cloth, on the liner, etc on and in originals. these would be found in the collar area, along the vertical zipper area, on or in a pocket, and....point being, with a-2s the only rules that i come up with is, there arent any. btw: i had a real head scratcher once that was a cbi a-2 with the name r. singh written on a cloth strip like the one on andrews a-2 that was sewn into the liner along the zipper stitching. the name was written on the liner itself near the collar.

 

[unclegrumpy]

no doubt, unc. however, i have seen all manner of name strip ids and name tags. i have owned and have seen this type of sewn in the liner strip on original wwll a-2s that had matching names on sewn on leather name tags. furthermore, i have seen cloth named laundry strips, as well as large, small, printed, written, cloth, on the liner, etc on and in originals. these would be found in the collar area, along the vertical zipper area, on or in a pocket, and....point being, with a-2s the only rules that i come up with is, there arent any. btw: i had a real head scratcher once that was a cbi a-2 with the name r. singh written on a cloth strip like the one on andrews a-2 that was sewn into the liner along the zipper stitching. the name was written on the liner itself near the collar.

I fully agree there are lots of different and odd possibilities as far as name tags and even more if you want to include laundry marks, and I too have owned a number of pieces of different WW II military items with this style of tag, but the question is when exactly were they were applied. Knowing the exact vintage of my own said tags, and seeing many others applied in ways/places that would not have done while being used in the military, suggests to me that they were applied at a later time than WW II.

These tags also do not follow typical form or military regulation, and are decidedly "civilian". That is not to say a member of the military might not have used them to mark his personal items, but not if they were items that were likely to be subject to inspection.

This is one of those things that would require getting into a way back machine and dialing it in to the day it was applied. I think if said machine were available, we would find ourselves in the early part of the jet age, and probably not on a military installation, though I agree anything is possible, and it is easy to get surprised with this stuff.

As an FYI, there is at least one piece of WW II military gear has my name on it....my fathers WW II denim barracks bag...it is marked exactly as required for scout camp...maybe one day someone will try and research my WW II service history :shock:

 

[Silver Surfer]

i gotta get me one of those way back machines. who knows, if i go back far enough, i might even be able to find the answer to that age old question about the chicken and the egg.

 

[Roughwear]

I recently had a good look at the lining and found another name written in ink. He enlisted in 1942 and presumably was issued with the jacket in that year. The other name looks like a post War addition, perhaps by a college student.