Suspicions about Cheshire badges?

[Mercian]

I have noticed in the last few weeks there has been a lot of Victorian/Edwardian Cheshire Regiment badges on Ebay by various sellers, all are lugged and all have a round sweat hole in them, as these badges came into use in December 1900, and sliders started to come in circa 1903, to have six for sale this week at the same time makes me a bit suspicious, and also over the last few months several broached versions with a round sweat hole have also been for sale. My version of the badge has a slotted hole in comparison. I am I being a bit paranoid?

[Peter Brydon]

Mercian,

I am in total agreement, when numbers of similar, relatively uncommon,badges suddenly start appearing for sale it is time to be suspicious.

This is one source of a lot of ( to be polite , shall we say ) non original badges:

http://www.arbeia.demon.co.uk/srs/co...ry/desc_b.htm#

Perhaps we ought to be monitoring sites like this to see what their latest offerings are and what we might see suddenly appearing in numbers on auction sites.

Regards

Peter

[Alan O]

All of the ones shown look fine to me with the large oval hole in the centre of the badge. Whilst the pattern was Victorian its use may have extended beyond 1903 on the FSC if the Battalion was in India or the like.

SRS sell the same rubbish as Taxicar/Croft collectables/etc

Alan

[Sonofacqms]

I am not a collector specifically to the Cheshire Regt, but I must say that these look OK to me.

This phenomenon of a number of the same badges appearing more or less at the same time could be the result of a collector selling off a specific collection to a Regiment, possibly in job lots to dealers who may be selling them on.

I agree it does look suspicious, but I think it's nothing new.

Rob

[tonyb]

I recall on a visit to the Cheshires' Museum in Chester, there being a display of maybe thirty of this pattern in a a frame.
Seems badge collectors are the only sorts to find the back of a badge as interesting as the front
Cheers Tony.

[49lassiepen]

The badge on your 1st row top right [no5] looks like the badge being sold by a person with some very nice victorian/edwardian badges They all look o.k
David

[Frank Kelley]

Whilst I agree, it is certainly very wise to be a little cautious, it should always be borne in mind that these are very common badges and were often only worn for a short period of time by many that had been originally issued with them.
So many 2nd Battalion men were Reservists, called back to the Colours as the teatime War turned into actual war in South Africa, so, as a direct result of that, you do see a great many clean examples with very little wear, I have a shoe box full of infantry, all bought home from South Africa in the 1970's and without even bothering to go scratching the surface, I can see, immediately, the three attached.
Notwithstanding, quite frankly, the reality, remains simply that you will encounter so very many different badges, with both rectangular and round holes, of differing size, to the reverse of the star, from differing dies and manufacture.

Originally Posted by Mercian

I have noticed in the last few weeks there has been a lot of Victorian/Edwardian Cheshire Regiment badges on Ebay by various sellers, all are lugged and all have a round sweat hole in them, as these badges came into use in December 1900, and sliders started to come in circa 1903, to have six for sale this week at the same time makes me a bit suspicious, and also over the last few months several broached versions with a round sweat hole have also been for sale. My version of the badge has a slotted hole in comparison. I am I being a bit paranoid?

[Alan O]

Originally Posted by Mercian

I have noticed in the last few weeks there has been a lot of Victorian/Edwardian Cheshire Regiment badges on Ebay by various sellers, all are lugged and all have a round sweat hole in them, as these badges came into use in December 1900, and sliders started to come in circa 1903, to have six for sale this week at the same time makes me a bit suspicious, and also over the last few months several broached versions with a round sweat hole have also been for sale. My version of the badge has a slotted hole in comparison. I am I being a bit paranoid?

The dates of lugs is always a difficult one. However it was longer than 3 years. The cap badge in question was sealed in 1897 to replace the collar badge which was worn on the new FSC. The introduction of the New Pattern (aka Brodrick) cap in 1905 saw the cap badge sealed patterns changed to a long vertical shank. The replacement of the Brodrick from 1906 saw the length of the vertical shank shortened. However in reality lugs were worn on Brodricks and peaked caps where old stock was used up and some regiments were slow to change. For regiments in India and hot climes the FSC was worn up to 1914 so the lugged badges would have been used up to then,

The previous post about brasing holes being a sign of a gneuine badge is generally true for Vci and Edwardian badges but in WW1 many makers did not use them and by WW2 it was common not to have brsaing holes. I have lots of examples from my grandfather's WW2 badges.

Alan