R N D Collingwood Btn sweetheart
 

Hi All,

have recently purchased a nice original RND Collingwood Btn sweetheart badge. Hallmarked for Birmingham 1914 and maker marked ' S Bros '. My question is - how rare are these ? A few can be found on the net, but can't see another for sale. So, if the early Btn. had say, 800 + men, how many would buy sweetheart badges(bearing in mind they are silver with gold plate, so won't have been cheap) ? Also, they are a small item, so have to take into account how many actually have survived. I know it's an impossible question to answer with any certainty, but I am thinking can't be too many about.

Cheers, Mark

Yours looks perhaps a one off, the silver brooch body may be a stock item with the Collingwood RND, anchor and flowers added to order.

badge
 

Must have been a few produced - Regimental Brooches had one - see item 11148. Yes, I think the back plate was standard and particular Btn details added.

Mark

The same but different.

badge
 

Yes, I had noticed slightly different. Could be down to different production periods - the hallmark on mine is for 1914, but the one on regimental brooches states date for 1915.
I note in their history, that the 'old' Collingwood were mostly taken prisoner around Antwerp in 1914 and only 22 arrived back in England.The 'new' Btn(containing the remnants of the old)saw service in Gallipoli in 1915 and then disbanded in 1916.

Mark

If the back plate is a basic design used for Royal Naval sweetheart brooches, there must be examples with H.M.S. (ship's name as required).

The anchor can probably be fitted anywhere in the centre circle allowing the space for lettering to be altered depending on the name of the ship.

Nice badges. I wouldn't have thought there would be too many of these about. The RND formed in September 1914 and by October 1914 Collingwood Btn was bound for France and then Belgium. They had 700 men, 678 of which were taken prisoner. The new Collingwood (including the 22 original's) left for Gallipoli in May 1915, and as a result of heavy casualties suffered by the battalion, in early June 1915, they were disbanded (8th June 15) and the survivors were sent to other battalions. So not even a year in existance!
It's always possible that some of the survivors had sweetheart badges made, out of loyalty and memory, of their old mob. Some of the relatives might have had badges made in memory of those lost.
Billyh

Letters all handcut with "Collingwood" cut from a single piece of gold sheet (probably 9 carat) and with detail hand engraved.

Possible that the maker had a "template" with the text fretted out in very thin sheet nickel silver. This was placed on the material of choice (gold or silver) scribed around and hand sawn with small holes drilled for the blade to be threaded through.

Things haven't changed that much and this is still done today for some work.

Like much sweetheart and other jewellery the gold will probably be a mix of red/ rose and yellow gold.

American jewellery of the "gold rush" era and beyond created what was known as Black Hills jewellery in rings and brooches, etc. They also used what was commonly called green gold, giving rise to a three colour effect.

As has been stated elsewhere, this is likely to be a standard frame for the text, anchor, etc. and you may well find it with womens' names such as "Mary", "Margaret" or "Arabella" on them.

Hope this helps.

badge
 

many thanks for the extra and fascinating information..

Mark

A pleasure, Mark!