A Question (or is it a commentary) on British Insignia (Long)

[DaveG]

I'm not sure if this is a question or an editorial. I've collected German and American militaria for over thirty years but I've always had a passive interest in certain British militaria, mainly headgear and selected insignia. Until relatively recently, WWI and WWII British insignia with certain few exceptions, have never been pricey. Yet, as I was pondering this situation, I thought back to all the gun shows and militaria shows I've been to over the last 3 decades and remember that there is always a riker mount of Brit insignia or a cigar box with assorted Brit insignia on more than one table, most of it in my opinion reproduction. I'm not talking SAS, LRDG or the more sought after regiments/specialties but common stuff. In fact, there is an elderly retired dealer here in my town that traveled to England extensively back in the 60's and 70's and brought back loads of Brit insignia to sell at gun shows. He's got stacks of yellow? backed Pegasus patches, numerous RAF/RFC cloth wings (repros, some even bullion - one RFC bullion wing on brown wool backing with a queen's crown????), badges, buttons, etc. To clarify, this is all king's crown, not queen's crown-era represented militaria. (Be patient, I'm nearly to my question). Not all of it is repro but the vast majority is. He hasn't been to England since the late 70's.

My first question is, why was this stuff being reproduced 30 years ago when it had virtually no collector value then or now? Who was it being reproduced for?

Next question, is there a reference for identifying repro metal/cloth Brit insignia? Something to show construction methods of good vs. repro? I do a fair bit of lurking on this site and have, for example, seen RAF wings posted for authentication but don't really recall a definitive answer - "if they're padded that's good", "if they're padded that's bad". (I once met a man coming out of the RAF museum in Hendon who supplied that museum's gift shop with repro RAF/RFC wings. Frankly to my novice eye they looked pretty good.) Carroll's book Eagles Recalled is a nice picture book (as most Schiffer books are) with the only text being picture captions (as all Schiffer books are). I've got a drawer full of RAF wings that came from local estate sales, flea markets, etc. and they look as good or as bad as anything in his book. Can one of the advanced collectors on this site please do a treatise on RAF/RFC wings like the detailed works on select German badges on the other forums?

Lastly, as I was perusing the eBay listings I came across a British tank sleeve insignia. The description said that this was the version with the barrel of the tank elevated which was "proper for WWII". Where does one find this sort of esoteric information? I have two such insignia, bought many, many years ago and have always wondered what vintage that they were. One has a slightly elevated barrel, the other does not. Is this a manufacturer's variation or is it indicative of something else?

Thanks for allowing me to indulge my frustration.

Dave

[SHEARING-CROSS]

Hi there ,
many thanks for starting an excellent thread .
i can only reply to a couple of questions but i hope it is of interest .
Regarding repro cloth insignia , much of the common stuff as you say has been copied , even trade badges now !! as i know of several UK based dealers who have large batches made up often in the far east they have plainly told me that if you can have a badge made up for $2.00 and sell it for $4.00 its worth doing if you do it big style in a couple of hundred lots , often when asked how come he has so many mint ,un issued ...say cloth Royal Engineers titles on his stall
" oh they came from an old tailors shop that was being pulled down ,found `em in the cellar " ...or the other good one is
" the guy that sold them to me was a Q.M at the depot ,and took them home at the end of the war as a keep sake " ......all 275 pairs .
Many uk cloth /badge dealers that i have met over the years know that the average " punter " as we are known walking round an arms fair will not have a wad of cash to spend ( sorry to any of you millionaires out there ) they now know its easier to sell 10 items at $10.00 than one item at $100.
Many of the areas now being reproduced HOME GUARD /LAND ARMY /CD etc 15 years ago this would have been un heard of as there was no demand out side of a few hard core ...and forward thinking collectors !! but as the more
" sexy " areas go up in price or demand , collectors look for another cheaper area to collect to , in the 1980`s many british based collectors who were in to the german gear moved in to collecting US or brit stuff as they could no longer pay the prices that nazi items were reaching .
The yellow /blue pegasus signs that you know of were worn by one of the units attached to the britsh airborne 6TH FIELD FORCE in the 1970`s ..ish , i think but as they have the same colours as the R.A.S.C they are often passed of as a rare war time para unit
ref: the cloth TANK arm badge you have , i have been told that the design around the gun barrel is not as detailed on an earlier pre 1920`s example but .....thats only what im told by a pal ....
regards ,MICHAEL.


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