4th Light Horse Field Ambulance - 1915-19

[Jibba Jabba]

The best badge in my entire British and Commonwealth collection. I guess you have to be an Ozy to appreciate the rarity of this one. This has been called a one off as the two that have been photographed many years ago for a book do not match this design.

[slick_mick]

wow! very nice - don't suppose you have a closer picture of it?

Mick

[badgecollector]

yes very nice.
would also like to see a pic of the reverse
BC

[Jibba Jabba]

I actually feel really guilty in showing this to the forum, since this badge really belongs in Australia, not in the UK.

Your requests for extra photo's have been noted and I hope you dont think any less of me for not showing anymore photos. I trust everyone implicitly here, I`m just really worried about fakers getting hold of good pics. Look what happened to the Australian Camel Corps! Repros are now so good they are fooling the best British dealers, who on the most havent handled an original. I`m going to start a thread on the 13th LH pretty soon because I think someone is chomping those out.

Our Administrator has a good point about fakers simply rolling up to a auction house buying an example and then producing a fake from it, but I strongly believe in this case even if your name was Sir Paul McCartney you couldnt find another, because no other of any design has ever been sold and this is a one off.

[badgecollector]

Originally Posted by Jibba Jabba

you couldnt find another, because no other of any design has ever been sold and this is a one off.

hi badge guru
are you suggesting this is a unique badge? there have been several of these type badges come up in australia for sale over the past 10 years (all with subtle differences) and the repro artists have been knocking em out for 20+ years.
i remember going to army disposals shops through the 70s and they were in all of them
i would b interested to know if yours is
die struck or cast
or sand cast
what type lugs it has and is it 1 or 2 piece?
if you feel it unsafe to pass on the info, thats fine
BC

[Jibba Jabba]

I am now seriously regreting this thread.

[Luke H]

JJ

BC asked a perfectly civil question with regards to the construction of the badge and if he has personal knowledge and first hand experience on the appearance/existance of reproductions of such badges then how can we question him if we have not?

To think you have the only badge in the world like it is like me saying I have seen every Leinster regiment badge/die type when I clearly have not although I have seen alot. There may well be others out there from the same die as yours and just because we haven't seen one yet doesn't mean it doesn't exist. So being so dismissive to BC's legitimate question isn't really helpful to anyone.

The only badge IMO which one could claim to be a one off would be a seald pattern example which was never put into production and the die subsequently destroyed.

Luke

[Jibba Jabba]

Luke I cannot respond to the question with out being incredibly sarcastic and rude so I am making the decision not to respond. I`m going to be taking 8th Foot's stance from now on, there really is no point in getting at logger heads with people, at the end of the day its just a hobby.

[Luke H]

JJ

If my post came across as insulting that is not how I intended it my point was that BC asked how your badge was constructed and you responded dismissively and have since edited your reply but it was something along the lines of 'I can tell from your question you have not really seen this before, the point of this post is to confirm this badge exists and not its authenticity' (please correct me if wrong my intention is not to misquote or have a dig)

If your badge isn't the only one out there and someone on the forum comes across one at a yard sale information on the construction of the badge would be invaluable in deciding if it is genuine or possibly one of the badges BC saw in the 70's.

Luke

[Jibba Jabba]

Luke I have never found any of your posts insulting. I saw the error of ways and deleted my original post. It was incredibly unprofessional of me. One should always look to dissolve any potential arguement.

When I first purchased this badge I took it straight to the Australian Light Horse forum. From there I was a contacted by a gentleman badge collector who told me he was able to contact Australia's leading badge expert. Sadly that badge expert had no internet connection and due to the nature of his work was very hard to contact. Print outs were sent to him and the badge was verified as genuine. All my information is taken from this source.

[badgecollector]

hi luke and jibba jabba
in the end, i would like to know the answers to the below questions, however im not going to push the subject. if jibba jabba doesnt want to, for whatever reason he has, i accept this. no hard feelings and i will move on from this thread.
attached is a pic of the last badge i saw for sale several years ago. it looks alot like yours and could actualy be yours. can i ask where you got yours from?
maybe you could just advise, with no pics,
is it cast or die struck?
what type of lugs does it have?
is it maker marked?
BC

[Jibba Jabba]

Thats because that badge is my badge and the pic was taken from another forum which I am a member. If I remember correctly at that time I used a scanner to make the pic because I didnt have a digital camera.

You can see it is my badge from the wear on the high points on the head. I believe this illustrates my point of what a small world this is and how photos of rare badges do get around. It just goes to show that there are lessons to be learned by posting the star items of your collection.

Do you also have my Australian Flying Corps badge pics as well?

I am not answering your question intentionally because it makes no sense. The construction is neither one of the options you have given in either one of your posts. These type of badges are not your common die struck or cast, the originals are made in a rather unusual way and since you have not listed that production method it causes me to question everything you have written in your initial post.

I will be very interested in your next response because if you have indeed handled an original you`ll be able to explain to everyone here what that method of manufacture is.