Att: flying/bomber jacket experts - help me label and age this G1...

[octopus_luke]

Hey guys,

Just seen a jacket on eBay with the label and pretty vague item descriptions. I've grabbed the photos from the listing below. Can anyone help me date and brand the jacket? The seller says it's horsehide, with it's real mouton, but it looks imitation to me. I think the whole coat is a civilian type, but I'm curious to figure out from when and where. It's priced pretty cheap...

 

[archbury918]

It's not a G1 nor any military jacket.
It looks to be a standard civilian market department store jacket. It could be from anywhere between the '50's to the '70's.
The zipper pull likely dates it before 1970

 

[Atticus Finch]

I agree.

AF

 

[Monsoon]

Yepper. That looks civilian; the G1 had patch pockets.

 

[bn1966]

Civvy for sure.

 

[Fanch]

The zipper is separating at the bottom, and IMO is just someone's old worn out jacket.

 

[octopus_luke]

Yeah, I'm steering clear of this one. It was ony £40, but even then probably not worth it.

 

[Edward]

I too agree that it's a post-war civilian jacket. It would be interesting to see the back; this one looks like a rendition of the B15 style in leather, which was common, though I've also seen many which have the slash-pocket front of the B15, but a G1/M442a style back with several panels, with and without the action back pleats. As far as one can stab a guess from a photo, the mouton looks like it could be real to me, but I wouldn't care to put money on that. The knits look like wool, which would suggest to me it's earlier than 70s; the 70s jackets I've seen tend to have much chunkier, ribbed-nylon cuffs and waistbands. The lining is some sort of pile... I've seen fifties jackets with a liner like that, and others with quilted nylon (Have a look at the Eastman Air Comfort - it's a very good repro of a typical 1950s civilian flying jacket of this type). My best guess would be 1950s-late 1960s on this one, but it's only a guess. In terms of its condition, I'd pass... if you wouldn't be happy wearing it like that, it looks like it needs far too much work done (replacement mouton and zip) against likely value, though that said, if you can source the bits and do it yourself for cheap, depending how cheap the jacket is, it could be an interesting project.