Quote:
Originally Posted by Faugh-A-Ballagh
I picked this one up from one of the more reputable dealers on ebay this week. Haven't seen one from this vintage before close up. I know they were blackened pre-ww1, but when this practise stopped, I'm not too sure. To me it looks pretty good. What's the general opinion
John
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John,
I saw that one for sale too, IMO it's fine and an earlyish one as the scroll ends adjoining to the harp are longer (like the pre'08 blacked ones) as opposed to those found to the ww2 issue FN varieties. The slider being bent back on itself (like a Loyal North Lancs) is fine I have two with such a slider (one being very thin and the other a lot like yours) IMO it comes from a certain manufacturer/manufacturers and is not uncommon amoug RIR badges and a good pointer to look for when after a genuine one.
As for being blacked I don't belive yours is/was if you look at the inside face of the slider which you can see between the harp and start of the harp strings the slider is clearly brass, it would have been nearly impossible to polish there and as sliders were attached before badges were blackened this would resultingly be blacked if this was the case. I think the colour of you badge is just down to the way it has aged/been treated.
RIR badges were not blackened after they changed to WM in 1913.
Jeanpit your badge just has some good old tarnished much in the recesses which goes back giving the badge a lovely contrast but it was never blackened
Was it from your grandfathers collection? If it was it could be a shout for the badges with the doubled over sliders being some of the earliest WM ones.
Cheers,
Luke