Glengarry badge metals

[lettman]

Looking through W.Y. Carman's Glengarry Badges of the British Line Regiments to 1881, it's interesting to note the various ways he describes their appearance. Most he calls 'brass', as we have come to expect the manufacture of genuine pre-1881 badges. But a number are described otherwise: 'gilding metal' (e.g. 30th Foot); 'gilt metal' (e.g. 20th Foot); 'copper-brass' (e.g. 34th Foot); 'yellow-copper' (e.g. 63rd Foot); 'copperish' (65th Foot); 'brass-copper' (e.g. 92nd Foot); and so forth.

This raises a number of questions, which probably can't be satisfactorily answered now with the passage of time, but which are worth consideration. For example, did the collection(s) Carman examined contain restrikes? Was gilding metal substituted for brass at some (later?) stage in the manufacture of glengarry badges? Was there a considerable variation in the quality of the brass alloy used? No doubt there are other questions and issues involved, and I'm interested to see the opinions and thoughts of Forum members on this topic.