Printed patches
 

I have noticed a seller with quite a number of printed patches on sale on e-Bay. The funny thing being that there only seem to be badges/patches of the printed variety. I am right in thinking that there is something fishy about this, or do the patches happen to be genuine?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/settingth...p2047675.l2562

A green on red RAF Regiment title certainly looks fishy!

Every one of the ones with a white backing look to have undergone the same artificial ageing process in my opinion.

Printed
 

I agree that they are very doubtful. Whilst someone went to a lot of effort to get the cloth weave, size, and letter font correct, the material looks too soft, and the ragged edges are not consistent with original items.

Stephen.

Regt titles
 

This is the third title I've seen him put up. The first sold for well over £100, the second went for 80 something! I've never seen anything like it but, as stated, the similarity in condition and fraying edges of his other wares looks well dodgy.
Craig

Almost looks like a test piece (The RAF Regt title) in that the style is right but the colours wrong.

I know an RAF officer who does living history in his spare time and he mocked some up for members of his group years ago that were far more accurate! If I recall the lettering was some sort of transfer on the backing. I guess printing a design is not hard to do.

Printed patches
 

I contacted the vendor via eBay, and added a link to this page. This is his reply:

"The badges I’ve been listing have not come from a source of modern reproduction."

Make of it what you will, but at least he is aware of our doubts.

Stephen.

Well, a nice little earlier. The RAF Regiment title went for about 90 quid with postage. Someone liked it!

From the look of them, I’d say they were all original but were rejects from the print run, most of them have some kind of error in the print
Lee

In the case of printed RAF badges the material is relatively thick compared to, say, army formation badges. The latter are often colours printed on a thin white cloth and there is an element of bleed through. But RAF printed badges, as with army shoulder titles, tend to be on a thicker/stiffer black backed fabric, with a coloured print over a backing colour. The only RAF Regiment title I've seen where both colours have been printed on a white thin backing cloth have been a variety produced in India (with matching shoulder eagles) and the style is noticeably different.

You're perfectly right regarding errors etc, but in the case of the RAF Regiment title (can't speak for the rest) not only is the construction unlike any other British made printed RAF badge of the period, but the colours?? That's a big error! :D

I purchased several remnants of slip-on shoulder title material from this seller; all were WRC designated.

Sure enough, the cut of the cloth is somewhat irregular in shape and there’s some indication of them being subjected to damp conditions, too.

However, if you look at this picture in the link: the upper cloth sample is from eBay, then the example below that is a period slip-on shoulder title - the material matches precisely to a thread by my reckoning.

http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/for...cture.php?albu

Further, I can’t personally fault the printing either, the letter and numbers match perfectly, as do even the ‘guide dot’ positions.

http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/for...cture.php?albu

There appears to be a somewhat theme of what amounts to either unfinished, uncut singles, pairs and strips of, too, which for the most part looked okay to me - some of the other patches and badges I’m not familiar with, at all.


Best,

Marcus

He has sold 3 RTR tank arm badges recently, one sold for 4,99 and one for 12,50 and one for a whopping 230 GBP!

The seller has listed a few more and they all have print errors
Lee