An interesting display of badges to the London Irish Rifles, they are,starting from the top left; Queen Victoria Crown, note the scroll which reads 'South Africa 1900-1902'. This is a late Victorian badge, the scroll being added presumably 'late on' as i have scans of this badge without the scroll: It is die-struck silver plate.Black velvet backing. Kings crown, again with the scroll, reads the same as the QVC above. It is die-struck silver plate. It too has a black velvet backing. Kings Crown, die-struck silver plate with a silvered backing plate, it has screw posts to the rear. Another version has lugs fitted for caubeen wear and a hackle tube fitted to the rear of the backing plate. Queens crown, die-struck silver plate with silvered backing plate,scroll reads ' South Africa 1900-1902'. This badge has 3 screw post fittings but it also comes with 2 lugs fitted (east and West) for wear in the caubeen, this variety has the addition of a flattened oval tube on the rear of the backing plate so that a hackle can be worn. The hackle being a 'St Patricks blue' which is almost turquoise, I hope to be able to add scans of these badges, front and rear, to this page at some stage when time and space permit. |
An other ranks capbadge in gilt, die-struck with a slider. You will note the 'horizontal' line that I mentioned in the Cavalry section . This one is broad and it is a good clear cut example of this phenomena. This badge has been re-struck for a long time and a lot of them have J R Gaunt London, on the slider, not a good sign. Keep watching for a page that is in prepartion about dating Gaunt badges from the size and position of their makers mark on capbadges. An awful lot of, especially early '70's, re-strikes have this J R Gaunt london on the sliders. Gaunts issued them as re-strikes at the time and not to try and pass them off as genuine, that has been done by others. A lot of the Gaunt strikes were done from original dies and therefore are hard to spot, so others signs of their authencity must be sought, |
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Another nice example of an other ranks capbadge in die-struck blackened brass (always gives a nice 'matt' finish, beware of anything that has been 'glossed' to try and copy this effect),this one has a slider. The 'line' is present although thinner and not as easy to spot as the example above.(It is not at the point in the slider bends and the light changes from darker to lghter, this is simply where the slider has been bent by a 'wearer' at some stage). you will also note differences in the crown shape from the example above, they have come from different dies. this is important when considering the re-strikes of this badge, more below. | ||
A fine example of die-struck other ranks capbadge in white metal, this one has a slider with the pressure line just visible. Good pointers on this one are the 'three rings' at the top right hand strut of the harp, copies have only 1 ring as in the blackened brass and gilt examples above. |
This is a copy, note that both the white metal copy and the b/brass copies appear to have been struck from the same die, so both look like this regardless of metal type. The nearest I have seen to one of these patterns was a WW2 die used for making Officer patterns, but these had void harp strings and were impressed with a 'P' on the back denoting silver plate and also some were impressed with an 'S' denoting silver at this period. I have in my own collection an Irish Guards Officers capbadge and a 4/7RDG officers capbadge that are impressed with a 'S'. You willl note that the copy has a good quality fimish especially the Crown when compared to the genuine ones above , this is one of the things that I base my (and I stress my!) theory on. I may well be wrong!! Compare it to the above good examples and you will see the differences for yourself. Note well the following........ A missing 'bead' at the bottom end of the row of beads on the Crown's left hand side. This must have been caused by damage in the original die. Along the centre 'strut' (the horizontal one) you will note a row of small 'beads' that run right to left and then run upwards at 90 degrees, on the copy the row that runs up is always a solid line and has no 'beads' on it. Ypu can see in the 3 examples above that this line is always made up of 'beads' and never solid. The 'support' piece that runs along the outside of the left hane strut is always very large and prominent compared to the goood ones. The Crown (as already mentioned) is actuallt superior on the copy! Beware of the 'J R Gaunt London' slider on this badge!! The WM copy is easily spotted as the pattern of the good one is completely different, more difficult is the b/brass, but with a careful study of these examples above you should be able to tell the good from the bad in this case. Hope this helps. Download these badges if you like and call them up side by side, they are all in my own collection so feel free to do this. |