Sealed patterns

[Faugh-A-Ballagh]

I have to admit that until a few months after joining the forum, I had never heard of a sealed pattern before. Although I would have probably quite rightly guessed that master copies of each badge were held somewhere, I never really would have given it much thought.
As I am now proudly a forum veteran, I feel I should really know answers to certain questions - so here are my questions on sealed patterns.
Seeing 54 Battery's excellent album of sealed patterns made me wonder.
1. How many sealed patterns were made for a badge?
2. At what level were they held? (ie battalion qm stores, regimental depot, ordnance depot etc)
3. Did the cards have to be amended periodically like training manuals etc?
4. Are they kept in public record?
5. How have examples become available for sale?
6. Are they more expensive than a normal badge?
7. Are they being faked - yet?
No doubt that lot will provoke a few comments. Please forgive my ignorance of this subject which I am becoming rather interested in.

John

[grey_green_acorn]

John,
For Q5 - many were sold off some years ago from the MOD at Didcot which, under various names, was the repository of Sealed and Standard Patterns.
54Bty has the expertise to answer your questions fully but have you seen the Group Album
http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/for....php?groupid=7
It contains many SPs from 54Bty (including those separately posted) and a few that I own.

[badjez]

Hi,
Chris will probably set me right but for starters:
Only one sealed pattern was kept by the War Office/MoD. They used to be kept at the 'Pattern Room' in Whitehall, London. Additional 'approved patterns' were provided for each corps or infantry/ cavalry regiment. In reality this meant a copy to each battalion as they were often serving in totally different places, and to the unit Depot. I believe that additional cards of badges could be made up afterwards but the date of 'approval' isn't always the same as date originaly 'sealed'.
The Pattern Room was closed sometime in the 1970's I think, and all the patterns disposed of. The RAOC clothing/equipment departments got those patterns that were still valid. Obsolete patterns were offered to regimental museums and the remainder went to the IWM and NAM (where thousands remain un-catalouged!). All sealed pattern firearms and edged weapons went to the National Armouries collection at Leeds.
Some patterns have since come on the market. One museum curator is supposed to have accepted his regiment's patterns and then sold them to his father who was a dealer! The MoD has disposed of some duplicates at auction.
So far I am unaware of copies having been made, but watch this space now its been thought of! There are some Gaunt's trade patterns on ebay for the Hunt's Cyclists which I would treat with suspicion.
I'm sure 54Bty or Chris will give more detail. Hope this helps.
Stephen.

[Mike_2817]

Originally the War Office Pattern Room and later the relevant purchasing agencies (Bicester/Caversfield/Didcut for Clothing & Equipment or Donnington for Mechanical & Technical Stores & Small Arms Weapons Spares for example) held a MASTER PATTERN of a Sealed Pattern. Then several sealed STANDARD PATTERNs would be produced as Working Copies, which would be supplied to the manufacturer to compare production with, and it is these STANDARD PATTERNs which in the main you see being sold, although several 'Prototype' & 'Master' copies seem to be on the market as well.

In modern times (i.e. after WWII) Regiments were no longer provided with copies of 'Sealed Patterns' for items which were codified by the War Office (i.e. had a part number or provided from the public purse) and items required to be purchased by an Officer needed to be via approved regimental tailors who would produce a copy SEALED PATTERN for approval and to work from, these are sometimes known as Counter Patterns.

I am always on the lookout for Royal Army Ordnance Corps own Sealed Pattens, but I have not come accross that many, perhaps because they were liberated by the RAOC clerks at Didcot? as the RLC Museum at Deepcut has so few to speak of!

54Bty has a nice RAOC Chrome Belt Buckle in the above album, which he was kind enough to picture front & back for me a few weeks ago, and its nothing like the example I have which was worn at Windser Castle in 1986 during Royal duties!

Talking about fakes, a 'Board of Ordnance' Wax Sealer of the type used on the old board samples was sold on eBay a few years ago! (Similar in design to my Avatar)

[Mike_2817]

Badjez, Sealed Patterns of 'Small Arms' meaning weapons below .50" (12.7mm) used to be held in the Pattern Room at Enfield Lock, home of the Royal Small Arms Factory, and later were moved to Nottingham when 'Royal Ordnance' took over. Never at the War Office. They are indeed now at the Royal Armouries in Leeds. A second collection of modern post WWII weapons used to be held at COD Donnington but I am not sure of its currant status, and Standard Patterns of weapons spares may still held by the REME at Donnington.

[KLR]

Regarding how many numbers, the RACD records give numbers and they are usually about 12. I've looked at SP cards (yes, Master, Standard etc) only for the King's at NAM and IWM. In the main these are for ORs though the NAM SP coll has a very few officers' ones. I have yet to find SPs for the Vol, TF or TA - except late TA AA ones (large collection at the IWM). Julian

[hagwalther]

Hi Guys,

As per usual I can only speak for A/A badges.

After the dies were confirmed from lead examples by the unit sponsor (usually the Regt or Corp Colonel) they were hardened and between 6 and 15 prototype A/A badges were manufactured from them. If the badges were deemed unsatisfactory then a new die would have to be re-sunk and the old die scrapped. The process was then repeated.

If all was OK then one badge from the prototypes was designated as the MASTER pattern and others (I do not know the number but it could have been some or all the prototypes left) were designated as STANDARD patterns. The two cards look the same except the designation of MASTER and STANDARD. Sometimes MASTER was spelt in red.

The badge was held to the card with tape and the tape SEALED with wax contining the Board of Ordnance seal. Sometimes the badge had a hole drilled through the slider (if so attired) and the tape threaded through it. This of course, was not to be part of the design brief for future badges.

The master was kept separately from the standard cards which were signed out to a company for them to look at if they had been approached for a reorder of a batch when the previous maker was unable or unwilling to re-tender. This information is kept on the rear of the card written in pencil or ink. It was then crossed through when the card was returned. The master was never given out although it could be inspected as required.

The pattern cards were replaced by pattern TAGS in the mid 1980's (if I remember). Instead of nylon string was used instead of cotton tape and a lead seal instead of wax. If I remember (again), the lead seal was unmarked.

Cards were amended as required such as name changes. Some non A/A patterns were also 'promoted' to A/A status with no change to the badge. i.e. it was not replaced with an A/A one.

Sealed patterns to my knowledge have not been faked. In principle this would be easy to do so but the materials used an a few other factors would in practice make this quite difficult to do well and a dodgy one should stand out. I'm not going to describe the difficulties in faking a sealed pattern here though.

I would like to purchase a sealed pattern card for use in my book so if anyone has any for sale please let me know.

Regards

Chris

[KLR]

Yes, as far as I understand it, that's pretty much the procedure for pre 1950s badges.

The nice thing about the original cards is that they are annotated with dated changes, eg from loops to slider, obsolescence etc etc

[Faugh-A-Ballagh]

Folks,
Thank you everyone for your answers and input. As ever, within less than 24 hours, I have my questions answered.

Best wishes

John