A favorite item is the Authentic Swedish Bandolier. It’s unquestionably cool, stylish, and adventurous. Banana Republic was selling these “authentic relic” surplus bandoliers in their catalogs from Holiday 1984 until Fall 1985.
The bandolier is a Swedish Army Mauser ammunition bandolier. It’s very popular with Star Wars fans and cosplay enthusiasts because it was used as a belt for the Tusken Raider Sandpeople in the first Star Wars film.
You can always find a few on eBay, and some even claim to be from Banana Republic, but without markings who can say? My question has always been did the belts bear any stamp or mark from Banana Republic? Is there any way to be sure a Mauser bandolier came from BR?
At last, here we see the mark on the inside of the belt! From a July 2012 auction (closing bid: $162.50) we have these pictures:
It looks like an ink stamp rather that an embossed stamp. It’s not entirely clear, but I believe that stamp is the “Discovered By” stamp that you see on some pieces of true surplus in the catalogs.
Mystery solved!
