Originally Posted by
RT Ellis
"Used" by the Marines is a slightly different matter. Starting in 1913 the Marine Corps Philadelphia Depot started manufacturing canteens and canteen cups similar to those manufactured at Rock Island Arsenal, that are identifiable because of the "slight variances." DQP continued to manufacture canteens and cups until around 1930 when it was reported the machinery was disposed of. The canteens and canteen cups manufactured by DQP and acquired from the Army kept the Corps supplied until the emergency of 1940 at which time it was decided to purchase from the Army rather than reacquire the machinery and go back into production at DQP. The canteens and canteen cups manufactured at DQP continued in use until unserviceable through WWII so technically some of the canteens and canteen cups used by the Marines had slight distinctive variances.
Canteen covers is a different matter. DQP started manufacturing canteen covers in 1914, and continued to manufacture the canteen covers until 1930, then went back into production in 1941 in different patterns through 1945. All of the patterns of DQP manufactured canteen covers were distinctive enough that they are easily identified.
There exist considerable misinformation about the DQP manufactured canteen covers by all of the authoritative book authors that have published catalogs of uniforms and equipment, that misunderstood the progression of the changes to the canteen covers. Collectors have accepted the misinformation as authentic and for the most part the correct information is irrelevant to collecting the material culture examples of the equipment.
The area that collectors should be cognizant of is that replicas of some of the DQP canteen covers are available, primarily from the online mail order dealers that cater to the reenactor market. At least one of these dealers mark their products as reproduction, however the replicas have enough variances in quality and color of material and construction from the originals that they are easily detected as replicas.
Comment: In collectoreze the terms replica, reproduction, and fake mean the same thing. The dictionaries indicated that replica and reproduction have the same definition. For my purposes a replica is a copy of something similar in material, construction, and appearance intended to substitute for the original item. A reproduction is something that is manufactured by the same manufacturer that previously made the product and went back into production. A fake or forgery is something purposefully manufactured, and intended to be passed off as an original, usually for profit.
