No.10 Commando "France" Shoulder Title

[WWIIBuff]

I am assuming this is junk, but wanted to double check just in case.

[tcrown]

This is a fake one, indeed. It seems a significant number of bad Free French badges have sold on the market lately. Be watchful on these repros.

[popskipa]

Yes the title is a fake, the “spaghetti” stitching on the reverse a common trait of the Pakistan made fakes...

Keith

[Mike B]

A whole load of French fakes appeared on the market a year or so ago (may be longer) and some were snapped up by well known and respected dealers, almost in a feeding frenzy - they were said to have come from a museum - they were in fact fakes. Many Commando units were represented and I think I can guess the French source - best be careful given others are coming across them too.
Mike

[WWIIBuff]

Thanks guys, that's what I figured. And yes Mike, the seller of this one claimed the source was a museum, but I know that does not mean anything either way.

[leigh kitchen]

At least one of these currently on eBay, stated to have
provenance to "the F. Knight Museum".
Edit - two, not one.

[WWIIBuff]

Both did. But again, coming from a museum means absolutely nothing.

[leigh kitchen]

They did? (I am aware that the "museum" bit carries as much weight as "it was my grandads" or "Found in a loft / barn / in a pot at the end of a rainbow").
Commissioned by a museum for legitimate sale at their souvenir shop or just a bunch of fakes aquired for sale as genuine by an "enterprising" chap who ran a museum?

[Mike B]

The moral of the story is 'caveat emptor', do lots and lots of research, ignore descriptions by people you do not know. Share advice in a productive way, among people who you trust, adopt a forensic approach, and always take care.
Mike

[WWIIBuff]

Yea it was the same seller Leigh. I think he just copied and pasted the same description referencing the museum in both listings.

Mike I agree completely, and this forum is a great tool towards that end. Thanks to information I've learned on this forum I was fairly confident in considering these to be junk, but I also don't ever want to miss out on that unusual variant original that everyone knows about but me.

[WWIIBuff]

Bringing this thread back up with another France title and a couple No 10 Commando titles. Any chance of these being real WWII insignia?

[3battalion]

Sadly, No.

Paul

[WWIIBuff]

Thanks Paul. Based on the thicker thread used for the France tab, I figured it is fake, but I do not know what to look for on the No10 tabs at all.

[Mike B]

Re post (11) above - The covered backing is usually a bad sign - most original embroidered Commando titles have exposed reverse, with neatly formed letters and numerals. Covered reverses usually hide a mesh of Pakistani etc stitching.

As for printed Commando titles - backing should be red, with some 'bleed through' / 'shadowing' of letters / numerals to the reverse. There is only one known genuine printed Commando title with a black reverse - the small sized generic 'Commando'. The small sized red back 'Commando' is quite difficult to find.

Hope this helps.
Mike

[3battalion]

You'll hear this a thousand times on this forum. Use the search function to find original examples of the insignia you're thinking of buying then do a comparison. A few moons ago, like you, I didn't know what to look for so attached is a photo of a couple of original 10 CDO titles to have a look at. Like Mike mentioned, look at the construction, shape of the writing, exposed back of the titles and the way the writing on the reverse is connected. Another quick method is to ask yourself does the age of the insignia look like a WW2 piece? The insignia that started this thread looks recently made. Apologies for the colour of the titles attached as they are slightly darker than the pictures shows.

Hope this helps mate and don't waste your money until you've had a good look through some old posts because there's a wealth of solid info on here. Keep the questions coming.

Paul