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  #1  
Old 15-07-21, 12:12 PM
hindoostan hindoostan is offline
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Default Unknown makers mark

Hi all, can any body identify the makers from their mark on this officers badge. It reads
A & W Ltd B'ham.
Cheers
John
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  #2  
Old 15-07-21, 12:23 PM
hindoostan hindoostan is offline
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Should have asked, expand on the details, ie full name, address, when operating and other known badges by this maker. I have not come across the name before.

John
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  #3  
Old 15-07-21, 12:39 PM
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Thread from2017 didn't produce any results.

https://www.britishbadgeforum.com/fo...ad.php?t=65904

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Old 15-07-21, 01:08 PM
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Thanks Mike, seems to be a relatively unknown maker. This badge is a good quality and crisp strike bronze officers badge, I am happy it is genuine.

John
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  #5  
Old 15-07-21, 01:10 PM
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Atkin & Wigley?
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  #6  
Old 15-07-21, 01:36 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hindoostan View Post
Thanks Mike, seems to be a relatively unknown maker.
The mark has been found on various buttons.

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  #7  
Old 16-07-21, 01:31 AM
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Hi

Possible that they made gold & silver work that was hallmarked. Check out the British Silver Maker's Marks website.

I'm dashing now, but I'll try and post a link later
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Old 16-07-21, 09:13 AM
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Nothing on the silvermarks website.
But i did find a reference to a back mark on buttons. Unfortunately although the button is illustrated ,there is no more information regarding who made it.
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  #9  
Old 16-07-21, 09:23 AM
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I would like to know what it stands for as well, Other Ranks General Service buttons are quite common with this mark in large and medium drop shank and medium fixed shank (epaulette ?) sizes.

Rob






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  #10  
Old 16-07-21, 10:33 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hindoostan View Post
Hi all, can any body identify the makers from their mark on this officers badge. It reads
A & W Ltd B'ham.
Cheers
John
Can we have a date for this badge, e.g. WWI?
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  #11  
Old 16-07-21, 06:06 PM
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It has a George V cypher, so 1910-1935 period approx when made.
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  #12  
Old 16-07-21, 06:36 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hindoostan View Post
It has a George V cypher, so 1910-1935 period approx when made.
It’s a GviR cypher so 1936-52.
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  #13  
Old 16-07-21, 11:31 PM
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Hi

I've used the hallmarks site to identify some badge makers before so it was just a thought.

You could try searching Graces Guide (no, not some online dating thingy....) and that might list firms that made buttons.

I don't collect buttons or badges per se but I do know that buttons were not an easy thing to produce if they were made traditionally. Clearly this firm did badges and buttons so of some note.

Doesn't Birmingham have a jewellery quarter museum? Records?

Hope you do find the answer!
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  #14  
Old 17-07-21, 07:39 AM
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To find this company one needs a Kelly's directory for Warwickshire from the late 1930s or 1940s.
One has to find an incorporated company with the proper tools to make buttons active in a non military trade. During wartime all governments distributed materials and handed out orders to manufacturers.
E.g. the leading USA compact maker manufactured US Army buttons during WWII. There must have been a shortage of compacts during WWII.

I could not find a downloadable Kelly's from the period and I have tried my luck on a 1914 Trade Directory.

Note: these are only options! No solution given!

Anstey and Wilson were a Birmingham-based electro plated ware manufacturing company and appear to have been trading right up until the late 1990s when it was dissolved.
also stainless steel dinner knives
Anstey & Wilson limited. Incorporated 13 March 1957, dissolved.
Not a candidate if there was not an earlier incorporation.

Alabaster & Wilson, 11 Legge Lane, goldsmiths, jewellers manufacturers
Alabaster & Wilson Ltd. established 1887, incorporated 1947.
http://www.alabasterandwilson.com/
I am expecting wartime production. As they were incorporated in 1947 they are not a candidate.

Altendorf & Wright, Vesey str. St. Mary's - gun stock makers and dealers, tin plate workers.
A strong candidate, but dissolved in the early 1930s.

A valid suggestion made by member RSM:
Charles Herbert Atkins & Ernest Wigley, 171 Hockley Hill, Birmingham (c.1920)
not in 1914 trade directory
1914: Wigley & Hall, 87 Vyse St. as jewellery factors & wholesale jewellers
1914: F.W. Atkins, 106 Vyse St. Jewellers manufacturing
no trace of being incorporated.

not researched:
Alexander & Ward, 19 Claybrook St., music & musical instrument makers & dealers, piano tuners.
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