[Fatherofthree]

Greetings.

To add to this thread, I too believe that the badge subject of the opening post is a fake, albeit a very well produced one, but there is an however.

I’m working on a project that involves trying to identify makers and dies of Essex OR badges and so far I have come across 5 different dies, (including examples of the subject badge) for the blank plinth badge, one of which is Lambourne.

One way I have of identifying a die is counting the brick courses on the left hand side of the castle, the turret and main body, (very sad I know), and naming each as 9 9 9, 10 11 10 etc.

The subject badge has a different count to each of the other dies and has been pointed out, it does not have sweat holes, although this is not damning proof, as neither of the Lambourne’s do either, (although a probable SA scroll Lambourne does).

In addition to the subject badge being a fake, I have the identical badge faked with the SA scroll.

In respect of Keith’s badge, it is, as can be seen, not completely voided between castle and Oak leaves wreath and does have sweat holes.

It is a completely different design badge to the opening item, especially the castle centre turret and castle as a whole and to be honest, I have not seen this example of badge before and wouldn’t write it off as a fake.

I see no real reason why some OR badges should not have voids, bearing in mind many OSD badges are in the style of Other Ranks badges and do have these voids, and as Keith noted, so do VB badges.

I will add that an Egypt scroll OR bi-metal is not a commonly seen item; does this suggest that they all are fakes or is it that a very small number only were produced.

Now the however: some years ago I made enquiries with the The Essex Regiment Museum in respect of voided OR badges, stating that the only examples I had seen were on blank scrolls and I was informed that they were assumed to be manufacturers variants.

Muddied the waters………………….maybe.

Regards.
Brian