Sinister Goings On - Connaught Rangers make a comeback!

[Passivate]

Looking around a number of auctions in the South of England I have noticed that SAS in Thatcham recently and now an auction in Liss both had Connaught Rangers Glengarry badges as part of a job lot. I am not particularly expert but I would have thought that this is a fairly rare badge.

It seems a little coincidental that the same badge, almost as a "come and get me" appeared in a group for sale. It may be my suspicious mind but is there something more sinister at work or was a previous owner duped separately in two locations? Odd.

Regards

Andrew

[Peter Brydon]

Andrew,

It may be that I am cynical ( and I am sure it will be pointed out if I am wrong ) but a large part of the military badges offered in provincial auction houses are duds/restrikes/spurious- call them what you will.

Peter

[Jeff Mc William]

Originally Posted by Peter Brydon

Andrew,

It may be that I am cynical ( and I am sure it will be pointed out if I am wrong ) but a large part of the military badges offered in provincial auction houses are duds/restrikes/spurious- call them what you will.

Peter

Andrew and Peter
I couldn't agree more, and these duplicates, restrikes, or fakes, or whatever you want to call them, seem to have spread right across the spectrum of badge collecting.
As well as cap badges, there are shako plates, shoulder-belt plates, and waist-belt-clasps in addition to cloth badges and other items, many of which are now appearing regularly on dealers and auctioneers sites. These people really aught to know better.
What was that expression ?? "caveat emptor" ... or something !

[Frank Kelley]

Sadly, the dross is not confined to salerooms, it would be nice if it was, I well remember whilst at Stockport a few years ago, there was the most obvious, blatant and completely spurious "SA Aviation Corps" shoulder title, which the seller, a well known dealer, was peddling as original, when a friend enquired on the price, he was absolutely amazed when he was told it was priced in excess of five hundred pounds.

Sinister goings on indeed!

Originally Posted by Peter Brydon

Andrew,

It may be that I am cynical ( and I am sure it will be pointed out if I am wrong ) but a large part of the military badges offered in provincial auction houses are duds/restrikes/spurious- call them what you will.

Peter

[Passivate]

What all this portends is actually quite worrying for this area of collecting. Reproductions are commonplace in every area of trading both in new items and vintage ones. How on earth someone joining the hobby can be expected to differentiate between the genuine and the fake is a bit beyond me and sadly what was an accessible pastime will become too risky in to which any serious money can be reliably invested.

Clearly this is not all about the money, but one would have hoped the experts in militaria put forward by these salesrooms should exercise some degree of integrity on behalf of their customers. How many Connaught Rangers lived in Hampshire - perhaps they were based in Aldershot!

More of a cri de coeur than a helpful post.

Andrew

[Peter Brydon]

Andrew,

Andrew,


The problem of non genuine badge has been around for many years and a large percentages of threads on the Forum are concerned with opinions on the originality of badges.

I am not sure if many of the cataloguers in local auction houses have the knowledge to be able to differentiate between genuine and non genuine badges, of course it may be that they dont care as often lots of non genuine badges sell for as much as genuine badges ( perhaps the purchasers also cant tell the difference )

At least with the Forum there is an opportunity to obtain opinions on badges either before committing to purchase or returning items that once bought turn out to be dud.

Peter