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My last A-2 (hopefully) - Good Wear

Nickb123

Well-Known Member
A Bold Move! – Part II/III (When you are set)

I will start with the fist in the box which is my personal benchmark: the Werber #33-1729. This contract was the first awarded to the Werber Leather Coat Company and is considered as being one of the earliest A-2 coming to life. It provides some nice little details which you only find in this contract, and personally I always liked the way how the cuffs and waistband were sewn onto the jacket with an outside stitching. Also the single stitched epaulets, are very appealing as they give the jacket a slight sportive tone rather than stressing its military heritage. Finally the heavy mechanical appearance of the early Hookless/Talon zipper is an all-time eye-catcher to me. Like in other contracts many of such details were skipped for efficiency and cost reasons in later war-time productions.

For this early pre-war contract I wanted to go for a lighter russet (pictures below rather reveal that in open daylight) and more golden brown knits but asked John to anyhow stick to the original as close as possible given all his proficiency and knowledge. The one thing yet to decide was which leather to take and as I already have some Italian Horsehide jackets I am glad having made the decision in favor for the Shinki-Hoersehide. Its structure, feel, natural grain and decent color shading is simply impressive and in reality far beyond what I can capture in the photos. John again hit the nail and created a perfect jacket.

I put some photos here for the generic appearance of this marvelous jacket as well as some fit-pics further down this thread so you get a better impression of the final result:

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and you get a functional zipper with that!
 

Mr. Mike

Well-Known Member
Well looking at your latest surprise ... I had at least an idea regarding the finish ;). Besides I am a bit torn between Monarch, Block and G&F as I would like to have the pink lining and ideally a lighter collar fur.
 
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mulceber

Moderator
You might want to consider Edmund T. Church as well - it fits all the criteria you outlined:
  • I have an original and the leather quality is similar to the Goatskin on my new Switlik.
  • came with both pink and brown linings
  • tended to have lighter fur
Plus it offers you some options for the color of the leather: some Church M-422as were your typical dark seal that the Navy preferred, but a bunch were more of a medium seal like what you might see on an A-2 jacket:
1646E018-B267-4319-829D-12486193AB9E_1_105_c.jpeg
 

Nickb123

Well-Known Member
You might want to consider Edmund T. Church as well - it fits all the criteria you outlined:
  • I have an original and the leather quality is similar to the Goatskin on my new Switlik.
  • came with both pink and brown linings
  • tended to have lighter fur
Plus it offers you some options for the color of the leather: some Church M-422as were your typical dark seal that the Navy preferred, but a bunch were more of a medium seal like what you might see on an A-2 jacket:
View attachment 77556

God, I spent a good half day trying to find a match for that missing patch. Now it’s stuck in my head again!
 

leper-colony

Well-Known Member
You might want to consider Edmund T. Church as well - it fits all the criteria you outlined:
  • I have an original and the leather quality is similar to the Goatskin on my new Switlik.
  • came with both pink and brown linings
  • tended to have lighter fur
Plus it offers you some options for the color of the leather: some Church M-422as were your typical dark seal that the Navy preferred, but a bunch were more of a medium seal like what you might see on an A-2 jacket:
View attachment 77556
Not Fudgie?
1649708561305.png
 

johnwayne

Well-Known Member
I’d love another JC masterpiece - a seal berry knit combo would be nice but re import costs it is a big add-on to consider, unlike when JC sent my Doniger back in 2009 (I think) he described it as a ‘used military jacket’ and fortunately no tax added! Trouble is if he were to undervalue a jacket and something went awry then the buyer would suffer. Doubt JC would wish to do that anyway!!
So anyone wishing to part with a 44” seal/berry GW I’ll happily trade for a RW 1st pattern tanker and, an original Cagleco ‘57 G1-both 44”s!!! Two for one anyone?
 

mulceber

Moderator
Well, after a year of waiting (and one or two other jackets along the way o_O), on Wednesday John told me he'd finished the Monarch and was shipping it out. I expected I might have it by early next week, but yesterday I got the notification that the package had been delivered. It was Natalie’s lunch break and she very kindly stopped home and put it inside the door — I’m not normally worried about mail thieves, but I make exceptions for 4-figure packages that I waited over a year for. o_O Here it is in good sunlight.
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And I love it! I had initially planned on Italian Horsehide, but at John’s suggestion I went for Horween, as he said he thinks it’s more accurate to vintage horsehide. I don’t regret the decision — I don’t know if John chose a particularly thin batch of Horween, but the leather on this jacket is thinner and suppler than other repros I’ve owned, very much like the original Monarch I have. Speaking of which, since, I’m in the unusual (but far from unique) position of having both a repro and an original of the same contract, I thought I’d do some head-to-head comparison shots:
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The repro is certainly a redder russet than the original, but it’s comparable to this jacket from John’s CD:
collar.jpg

In ordinary lighting it appears as an ordinary dark russet, but it really comes alive in direct sunlight. The finish is a glossy one, but John told me it would become more dull as I wear it.
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The pocket flaps are a bit different, but I’ve looked at a lot of originals and Monarch pocket flaps are all over the place - pretty much the only common denominator is “big pocket flaps with gentle scalloping.” The pocket flaps on my original are cool, but John’s actually look more typical of the Monarch contract. They're particularly close to Chuck's Monarch, in the bottom left of the next picture, imo.
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Original blackened Talon M-39 zipper. This one isn’t a repro, or even New Old Stock — it was recycled from original WW2 gear (Navy flying trousers, I believe) that had given up the ghost. The blackened Talon M-39 is a detail only Good Wear gets right.
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