RMLI Victorian Glengarry?

[Ray6930]

Have attached pictures of what I think may be a Victorian (1870-1898) SNCO 3 piece glengarry badge. It seems to be gilt and to match the description given in the reference papers someone once copied & sent to me - except that they do not mention the globe being a separate piece. The three pieces seem similar in colour/appearance from the front and the globe is different, more golden colour than the other two pieces inside the rear. Not sure if it is genuine but a nice piece for my RM display -- Ray

[Sonofacqms]

Looks good to me, three piece being correct.

[Jeff Mc William]

Ray. I totally agree with Sonofacqms..looks a "good-un". But how were they fixed to the cap ? Did it have a brass backplate similar to the post 1881 army HPC/Glengarry badges ? Jeff
PS I see there is one on the Bosleys Web site (buywyze.com) item 1014968 page 7 (military) for £125.00, not a bad price I think. J

[Ray6930]

Hi Jeff - On this one it has normal lugs either side of the laurel and one in the centre of the globe - allowing one long pin to hold both the laurel and globe to the glengarry. The top horn simply has two lugs. Looked at the Bosley one, that's ORs and doesn't show rear fixings. Mine seems to be gilt which would make it SNCO I think. Do you know what is best for cleaning gilt badges? - Ray

[Jeff Mc William]

Ray. Thanks very interesting. The only safe way I know is soap (or detergent), warm water and a soft toothbrush. Regards. Jeff
PS. Could I be an absolute pest and ask for the dimensions of these various pieces. Thanks

[Ray6930]

Jeff
Did you get the pictures okay? If they came through and were okay for your needs I could do another one of the three pieces against a ruler if you like - Ray

[Jeff Mc William]

Hi again Ray. No, sorry, I have not got them yet. Just in case I got it wrong on my last post, my e-mail address is ; jeff.mcwilliam@tiscali.co.uk
I will make a point of acknowledging on receipt. Thanks again for all your trouble. Jeff

[mgc]

In my opinion the wreath would have one pin across and the globe another going down. If the lines (longitudes and latitudes) in the globe are proper, the eye would be horizontal not vertical, so in total three pins. Or, perhaps the horn pin would have been long enough to hold the globe. A back plate would certainly help space this configuration.

[Ray6930]

Thanks MGC - I have seen a picture where the lugs were lined up so that a long pin would secure vertically through the horn lugs and into the globe lug. The pins in my picture are merely (old) bent wire and probably not original but would be long enough to fix like this with up to appx 1cm gap between the two pieces. Seller Leighbuzzly has one of these repeated for sale on ebay (£64.99) and that has a bar and pin fixing across the globe and laurel. May have at one time been a conversion for sweetheart purposes? He told me he had bought two and that was the best match of metals/colours out of the four pieces! He seems to get a lot of old badges through but I have no idea how reliable he is. I will see if he'll tell me what the fixing method is in the other copy - Yours Aye -- Ray