Question on fire gilded full dress Chaplain badges..

[arrestingu]

Hi ,
I just wondered if any one can advise when / if chaplain badges were issued in fire gilt for full dress and what date would these be authorised / used .
Thank you Steve

[badjez]

Fire gilt? I thought this method ceased in Victorian times as a bye-product was a poison gas that killed jewellers.

In the early 1900's a cloth badge was worn by some padres, but I'm unsure if they ever had need of a full dress uniform. I always thought that they would wear clerical dress with appropriate insignia on their scarves.

White metal insignia was authorised for TF clerics, and blackened for Regular Army.

Not much help I'm afraid.

Stephen.

[hagwalther]

Hi Steve,

I believe, as per Stephen above, that fire guilding is a thing of the past. As I know it the fire guilding was a mixture of gold and mercury which was painted onto a badge and then heated to remove the mercury leaving the gold. The mercury fumes were the problem.

From a modern post 1993 aspect the Royal Army Chaplains Department - Christian was officially authorised by the Army Dress Committee (ADC) but genuine pieces are quite rare although there are two versions both by Firmin from 2007 and 2013. They are maker marked differently too. These badges have NSN and Pattern No. Authorisation date unknown and NSN + Pattern No. may be pre 1993.

For the Jewish version - again authorised but to be provided by the Army Chaplains dept hence no NSN nor Pattern No. I have discussed this badge with the Jewish Chaplain to the British Army - great guy - and he arranged a batch to be made. Genuine 'kosher' ones (as he tells me) are very rare although knock-offs abound on eBay.

Both these badges are made from gilding metal/nickle silver with dead gilt-plate/silver-plate with enamel.

Regards,

Chris

[arrestingu]

Thanks guys if anyone can add anything that would be terrific .......the reason for my post is this badge ...

[grenadierguardsman]

Originally Posted by arrestingu

Thanks guys if anyone can add anything that would be terrific .......the reason for my post is this badge ...

Nice to see, i note that the black staining is similar to the staining on my fire gilt Irish Guards Sgt's cap star i have. Thanks for sharing.
Andy

[49lassiepen]

I have gilt collar badges [ex Colin Churchill collection ] therefore would expect to be gilt cap badges .Will post photo this evening suspect they will be upside down
David

[btns]

Fire gilding has not been prohibited, but it is a rare art.

This links to a company in Germany:
http://www.fire-gilding.com/Studio.html