[bess55]

Hi Alan,
The nitty gritty of anodised collecting!

Ok my experience of your sections are as follows:-

1. I have with blank sliders and do not consider original:-

Royal Warwickshire Regt
Fife and Forfar Yeomanry
Royal Ulster Rifles (Kings Crown)

However i have 3rd Kings own Hussars stamped Firmin London, although this I doubt to be original. The origins of this badge (i.e the reunion etc) have been explored at length here.

My South Staffordshire Regt is stamped Firmin London (nice clear stamping), die cast badge, flat blank rear,appears to have been worn with typical wear at the top of the slider and generally presents as any good 'real' anodised cap badge.

Northumberland Fusiliers. I have several of these, many have clearly been worn with wear on the slider and the face of the badge, maker marked Firmin London and J R Gaunt London. The Firmin and Gaunt badges are clearly from differant dies as they have slight differances.

2. I have with a blank slider the obligatory Hampshire Carabiniers Yeomanry, which is clearly not real and I dont think is even made of alluminium, perhaps tin or some other alloy.

However my Suffolk Regt appears cast and has a slider marked H.W Timmings. This particular anodised badge has been mentioned on another thread as there is an example for sale on Ebay. My example appears cast and is not 'mirrored' fully on the rear and looks much like many good badges. However on closer inspection the stamp it appears suspect.

My East Surrey Regt presents as a well made, nicely cast badge, J R Gaunt London marked slider.

KC Rifle Brigade. Well, I have two of these one blank slider and one marked H W Timmings Ltd B.Ham. They are differing dies. Whilst I am aware of the dubious reality of this badge being made let alone worn in anodised alluminium, I have to say the marked slider example appears fine, slider correctly adhered with a nice clear stamp. Both examples do have some 'mirroring' on the rear.


3.
My Essex Regts are cast with sliders marked Dowler Birmingham and Firmin London, both differing dies, plus an example with a blank slider which appears from the same die as the Dowler example.

Gloucestershgire & Hampshire Regt, I have examples marked J R Gaunt London Ltd and Dowler Birmingham. (incidentally should this have badge come with a gilt back back ?)

4.
City of London yeomanry q/c and 23rd London Regt I have both marked J R Gaunt B.Ham as you state.

SAS, well I have examples marked J R Gaunt B.Ham, London Badge & Button Company (also all gold by this maker), Firmin London manufactured black (yeah, right) and an example with lugs (and no not the very distinctive Rhodesian Reutler type).

5.
Well I would add to the above South Wales Borderers as a well faked badge and clearly comes from the same school as the KC Royal Ulster Rifles and the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, we all know the type . . . very thick alloy , mirrored back and un marked slider, the badge being in pristine condition and never been worn. I also have a Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regt which I dont like. Thick, odd finish and a very poor Firmin London 'offset' stamp on the slider . . . hmmm.

I would add 5th Bn Seaforth Highlanders which is of the same construction as the Hampshire Caribiniers . . . . a bit 'tinny' in construction but presents like anodised alluminium. Also I have an example of The Welch Regt with a blank slider, thick guage alloy and unworn.

Berkshire Yeomanry (silver) with slider marked Firmin London. Not convinced about this one either as I have some nice cast examples with lugs.

Clearly there are more but these are all I can recall at present. Obviously some of the rarer or indeed never produced anodised badges were in fact made by someone, I would guess mid 70's for the collector, either directly to decieve or just to be purchased by collectors. This subject has and hopefully will be discussed at length. To commission an out and out fake/reproduction anodised alluminium badge surely cannot come cheap, so once again it must beg the question why do it, although clearly it would appear to have been done. Would a manufacturer commission a run of under 100 hundred units? Any more and the potential deciever would flood the market. If made by an established anodised badge manufacturer, why are they of a clearly differant quality to a regular badge and of a differant process?

Another oddity is when we see clearly original badges with unmarked sliders. Anbody know why?

As ever, my commentry alone and am happy to be corrected at any turn.

Regards all

Bess