Recently while trolling on eBay over a 4 week period, I noticed a few ads for WW1 OR jackets that had been dyed black. As I recall, they were all advertized as Canadian jackets, although I think they were all 5-button jackets with stand and fall collars. I was curious as I was not able to find any reference to black jackets. They aren't mentioned by Grant Tyler in his Drab Serge book, nor in any of the other books in my library. I tried good old Google, but came up blank (except for the references back to the eBay auctions ... go figure ...)
The first one I noticed, I watched through to the close of the auction, and was surprized to see that it went for over $600. I watched two or three others, and they went for $300 to $700.
Now I have one ... for some unexplained reason, it went cheap. Once I had it in my hands, I found that it does not have the same characteristics of any of my other Canadian WW1 jackets, and as it has British GS buttons, and is a 5 button model, I have assumed it is WW1 British. It is definately not one of the early WW2 service dress jackets.
But enough about the jacket ... what I am really curious about is why it was dyed black. My thoughts are: perhaps used in civilian life after the war; perhaps naval service; perhaps civil defense or fire brigade.
I would appreciate if you would share your wisdom on this so that I will know why it went from khaki to black!