Military doctor's shoulder straps with the rank of collegiate adviser, 1908-1917

Quite rare shoulder straps in excellent unworn condition. In 1867, military doctors and pharmacists were awarded narrow silver shoulder straps with black gaps, red edging and red lining to distinguish their ranks. They differed from officers' ones, firstly, by their smaller width (28 mm instead of 67 for officers), and secondly, by narrow black stripes woven along the edges of the braid. In 1908, in recognition of the merits of military doctors during the Russian-Japanese war, they were awarded special shoulder straps, the so-called "doctor's", the width of which was about 50 mm. The colors of the shoulder straps and the pattern of the braid remained unchanged. In February 1914, all military medical and civilian ranks attached to the troops were ordered to have ciphers on their shoulder straps from the same numbers and letters as the officers of this unit, department or institution. In practice, judging by the photographs, many military doctors were in no hurry to spend their modest salaries on new shoulder straps, so some did not get their ciphers until the end of the World War. In addition, there were a number of units (mainly guards), whose officers and military doctors were not supposed to be encrypted. Two gaps in the absence of asterisks indicated the rank of collegiate adviser, similar to the rank of an army colonel. Cloth, silver braid. Guarantee of authenticity.