Hi Phil
Although I’ve only been collecting for a couple of years now, and so am certainly not as experienced as numerous other Forum members, I have to say that I personally currently consider the badge you have to be a reproduction. When I first started collecting Leicesters badges I bought one of this same manufacturer’s design, albeit an all-brass/gilding metal version (see
here), and even though this very same design does appear in Cox's
Military Badges of the British Empire 1914-18 (see this
posting), I was advised that mine was a modern repro. Since then I have acquired a few of the exact same maker’s design, including a bi-metal one like yours, but I still, at present, regard them all as reproductions. I remember you did post up some images of a rather nice genuine bi-metal Leicesters TA badge you have, which had been converted into a sweet heart brooch,
here and
here. Although the design of your latest one is similar to that one, you should be able to see that they are not, in fact, by the same maker. Until I’m convinced otherwise I’m afraid my personal opinion of the one you now have would be that it’s a repro.
Regards
Martin
P.S. In the same thread as the various posting I’ve mentioned above, nottuh13 put up some images of some Leicesters badges he had including two of the same design as yours but one of which did have sweat holes! I personally suspect this might not be as it first seems, and that the holes could have been added afterwards – though I have yet to get hold of an example myself to examine things in detail!!