4th Royal Irish DG

[jeep]

Is this for real? Poor stamping and surely not an officer's badge.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA:IT&ih=025

[Cardiffbloke]

Looks Good to me.... Looks like an Indian Sand Cast badge. I have a few KDG examples that are very similar in construction. It is not a fine UK made (Gaunt et al) item but an 'in theatre' badge produced in the early 20th C. I would have thought it was pretty rare actually.

[cbuehler]

The vast majority of OSD badges were cast, some of them superbly done and others a little less so. I dont think this badge is bad at all. Sometimes the multiple parts are a little loose on these badges. I also think that it could have been made in the UK as well.
I would presume this to be a collar badge with the lugs, but there are exceptions.

CB

[Cardiffbloke]

Indeed, although i do think the quality of the detail on the front negates the possibility of it being a UK made badge. Also Officers badges in Cavalry Regiments were almost certainly made by a 'named' manufacturer although not without exception i grant you. As for the lugs..... Well; i think we have all been around that particular 'buoy' many many times ad nauseum! I refer you once again to these two full size cap badges 1 KDG & 1 Bays.... both absolutely genuine....

[cbuehler]

A couple of very nice badges there! One thing that does puzzle me is the very short length of the lugs (loops). I have seen this before on other badges as well. Even early OR's badges tend to have such short lugs that affixing them to the SD cap leaves very little protrusion on the inside for sliding on the split pin.
I might guess that the pinched lugs, particularly that of the KDG, were an attempt to squeeze out an extra milimeter or so of length in order to facilitate this?

CB

[Cardiffbloke]

I think you might be correct in that assumption. On the sealed pattern card dated Feb 1904 its says "Service Cap and Service Collar Badge" (see Pic). The badge on the card has lugs like my example. It is hard to say what this particular badge was worn as but it wasn't long after that the Bays adopted the smaller collar badge and finally a few years later the smaller cap badge with blades; replacing the larger cap badge with blades..... Confused?