I thought I'd share this small item of military movie memoribilia with you. You'll notice that the reverse of this 506th PIR oval is ink-stamped with "Band of Brothers Wardrobe Department". Much of the series was filmed here in the UK. When the filming was completed a lot of surplus props found their way onto the UK collectors' market, for example, I also have a similarly marked, re-inforced jumpsuit which was used in the series.

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That must be a post production stamp that was made for the collectors market. The items that came right off the set certainly did not have that stamp.

It ain't necessarily so. The oval is a repro, of course, but I bought my used jumpsuit off a well-known British dealer who bought up a ton of stuff directly from the studio soon after production ended. It bears the same stamp inside of the jacket and pants. Also available at the time was webgear..a mix of genuine and repro.."M2" helmets (converted M1s)...Corcoran boots...rubber M1 rifles etc., all with 100% provenance but I can't say if it was all marked accordingly.

(I also have some original US WW2 uniform items marked with the wardrobe dept stamps of 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. Obviously surplus bought up after the war for use in the movies. It's just a nice little "detail" which adds something different to the items concerned.)

Hi Ian & Jake, I worked on the production in the wardrobe and webbing departments and at the end of filming bought quite a few of the pieces and also obtained the stamps from the production, the stamp was used on set at the beginning of production but as so much quantity of stuff was used it dropped from use.

You may or may not have read in another post on the forum that I supplied 300 sets of ex Norwegian M-43 jackets and trousers at the beginning of production, by the time they got to the Bastogne scenes they had all disappeared
( overnight ) from the wardrobe department, and I hurriedly had to re-supply a further 300 sets . When you have amounts like this coming and going through the departments then the stamps just fell into disuse

Hands up here, I stamped all the para ovals that I sold not to enhance the value but to prevent the ovals ever being resold as ' originals '.

At the end of ' Saving Private Ryan ' I bought around 500 pairs of ankle roughouts and possibly 400 or so of the
M-41 jackets, these were stamped inside with ' SPR '. I sold the boots at £8 for ones used in the beach landings, £12 for decent boots not used in the sea, and £20 for brand new still in the boxes, I didn't place any extra value on the filmwork side of the value, the M-41's went for around £20, or much less for damaged or stained ones, many of them had casts names inside them.

Personally value wise I cannot place a reproduction filmwork item above an original genuine item

I still have an M-42 set named to Winters, if I recall I think there were five sets made for Damien Lewis for continuity purposes, as the scenes progressed.

I still have four different stamps used on the set including two, one with ' Issued ' on, and one with ' returned ' all extra's working on set were intially instructed that their paperwork be stamped each day when uniform and webbing was handed out and handed back, this was so complicated and lengthened the already long working day that this was also discontinued.

Cheers ( Lewis )

Thanks Ken,

Interesting intel. The patches I show came to me in late 1999 so it was pretty early in production. I know that the first "small bible" was finished in April of 1999 and that the expanded version was not completed until late summer of that year. I also have some of the DI's, Lewis' Crossed 506th rifles as well as a few other things that came from Hobbs. I have a set of reinforced 42's from SPR and they were only marked (in white surgical tape) "extra #40". These came from the major US post production buyer and they were a gift as well.

I can appreciate you marking the ovals BoB as they are rather well done and could fool a few folks.

Jake

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Below are an oval, small 506th patch for the Toccoa shorts and one of the Pocket Patches that were made for the series. These came from Alan Hausmann directly from the wardrobe office as I worked with them during the series. These were a gift from Alan who is a great guy. You will note that there is no "BoB stamps on any of the insignia.

Here are two examples from my friend Joe Hobbs who was part of the costume design team. Again, neither have any stamps on them. At one time I had about 2 dozen of the ovals that I have given to Veterans and such, and none were stamped. I also have a jump jacket and boots from the series and neither are marked with anything other than sizes.

Hi Ken! So you're the one reponsible!? I got my kit off Lee Money. He had a shedload at the time..including '42 jumpsuits named to some of "the squad". So there was such a stamp....though obviously not used universally for the reasons you explained. Fine by me...I know my stuff came "off the set", stamp or no stamp!

Cheers!

Ian

Hi Jake, that film set was so leaky poor old Alan Hausmen had several original pieces of his collection stolen from his office which he had used for display and comparison to copies, even including his author dedicated and numbered copy of ' Doughboy to G.I.' which he had received direct from the author.

Hands up here, I stamped all the para ovals that I sold through my militaria store, not to enhance the value but to prevent the ovals ever being resold as ' originals '. See post #4 above.

Also p.s. I stamped all my large 506th pocket patches I sold so no unsuspecting purchaser would ever be sold one as original.

Cheers ( Lewis )

Ken..I still regularly dip into my signed and numbered copy of "Doughboy". An indispensable reference!

Ian

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Damn, it's fifteen minutes after mid-night here and I was going to bed to read an hour ago but got into this posts subject.

Hi Ian, thanks for the promo words above.

Right before I do go to bed a few photos from the Band of Brothers studio and the boots from Saving private Ryan.

Above is a Polariod photo of all the equipment issued to ' Hester ' this was done for a couple of reasons #1 to make sure that the equipment issued to him was issued each day and returned each day according to his list and photo, #2 so that positioning of ' Hesters ' equipment remained consistent in consecutive scenes. General extra's were not named in the same way as ' Hesters ' was, just numbered such as ' A-11 '.

Cheers ( Lewis )

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Photograph of some of the ' Saving Private Ryan ' boots bought at the end of filming , the photograph was intended to be of the dog but the boots do appear in the background both used and unused boxed ones, also just visible the sleeve of a ' blood ' stained M-41 jacket on top of the boots.

Cheers ( Lewis )

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Here you go Jake ( APO 470 ) , here's our friend Alan Hausmann who was in charge of the webbing department for ' Band of Brothers '. Incidentally Alan had all the reproduction Musette bags stamped inside the flap with something like ' Hausmann Mfr. Co. 1942 '

Cheers ( Lewis )

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All the brand new reproduction ' Band of Brothers ' paratroop Corcoran boots being aged in the ' combat aged ' cement mixer with a couple of half house bricks and a shovel of sand.

Cheers ( Lewis )

p.s. right off to bed now, will do some more photo's tomorrow.

Please do, post more, quite interesting. I have one of the invasion brassards from the Holland scenes. From what i've seen, it's all pretty well made stuff.

Yep, i use mine to keep the back door open !!!!!!!!!!!!!.........517th

Hey 517th...just don't mention Henri-Paul Enjames!!

Ian

Hi Ian, just don't mention new publishing computer programs, digital cameras and modern cheaper color printing methods, or the five years and a divorce.

Cheers ( Lewis )

Bonjour Ken! Yes..quite. If only...eh? I remember you relating to me how a lot of your photos went missing had to be re-done in almost zero time due to the printing deadline. Only 35mm SLR reels in those days (ready by Thursday!!). Today it's a different digital ball-game.

A bientot!

Ian