Imperial German Officer Silver Field Sash Feldbinde Yellow State Color with Tassels

This is an Imperial German officer's field sash (Feldbinde), woven in silver bullion shot with yellow, complete with its pair of large bullion tassels and its steel buckle slide, and retaining an old collection tag numbered 1415. The interwoven yellow marks the state color of the officer who wore it, placing the sash among the state line-officer patterns of the German army.

The sash is woven as a long flat band of silver metallic thread through which a yellow thread is carried, the two running together in the fine ribbed weave characteristic of the officer's Feldbinde. At each end hangs a full tassel of the classic Schläppchen form, a cap of openwork bullion mesh above a thick skirt of twisted bullion strands, worked in silver to match the band. Accompanying the sash is its steel buckle, a rectangular two-prong slide frame of the form used to fasten and adjust the Feldbinde around the waist beneath the concealing fold of the sash. The whole is of private-purchase officer quality, bought by the individual officer rather than issued.

The officer's Feldbinde was worn wound around the waist over the tunic, an immediate mark of commissioned status, and its color scheme carried specific meaning. The band was woven in the officer's metal, here silver, with a thread of the state color running through it, so that the sash identified both rank and the state served. Silver combined with yellow belongs to the group of German states that used yellow as their distinguishing officer color; among the states whose officer sashes carried yellow tones were Baden and several of the smaller courts, and the exact placement is best confirmed by matching the shade of the yellow in hand against the state schemes. What the piece itself establishes is that this is a silver officer's sash with a yellow state color, a line-officer's Feldbinde rather than the gold sash of a general.

A word on the small tag. Tied to the sash by a wire is an octagonal wooden tag stamped 1415. This is an old collection or inventory number, the kind used by an established collection or dealer to track a piece, and it is retained as evidence of the sash's earlier history in such a collection. It is not a regimental or maker's mark and does not itself identify the state or unit; its value lies in the provenance it signals.

Condition is good for a woven bullion sash of considerable age. The silver-and-yellow band is intact along its length, showing the toning and tarnish expected of aged metallic thread together with light wear, some thin areas, and a small break or two in the weave consistent with age and handling. Both tassels are present and full, retaining their mesh caps and bullion skirts with the usual softening and minor loss of individual strands. The steel buckle is solid and complete with honest age patina. The old numbered collection tag is present on its wire. There is no catastrophic loss, and the sash displays well as a complete set of sash, tassels, and buckle.

For the collector, the officer's Feldbinde is a fundamental and elegant piece of Imperial German uniform accoutrement, and one carrying a less common state color such as yellow holds particular interest for the collector building by state. Complete with both bullion tassels and its buckle, and retaining an old collection number that points to earlier history in an established collection, it will appeal to the collector of Imperial German officer insignia and accoutrements and to those focused on the smaller states, especially once the yellow state color is matched to its state in hand.