Interesting Aircrew wing - Moody Bros

[David B]

Hi guys,

 

This wing is for sale here in the UK and I was wondering if anyone has an idea of the manufacturer? The wing is unmarked but has been tested and it is silver. The obverse of the wing has the appearance of a British style wing but the pin is of the American type with a drop in catch.

 

Any ideas?

 

Cheers

 

Dave

 

 

 

[Patchcollector]

I don't know who made it but it is a nice looking wing.Great detail!I'm sure some of the experts will chime in on it soon.

[LuftStalg1]

A real beauty!

[tomcatter]

Very nice wings, I really like this feathering!

I don't know who the manifacturer could be, but I think it's made in USA, not CBI or UK.

Not "Sterling" marked (Sterling = Silver 925), but looks like silver: maybe it's made of Silver 800.

[rustywings]

Beautiful feathering! But not a pattern I'm familiar with?

[David B]

Yes it's a beauty, I wish I knew who made it though.

 

I've tried to find a photo of another like it but so far, nothing

[mghcal]

I'm a novice on wings but have an idea. To me this looks like the style of a Beverly Craft. I've also seen the same sort of back on Beverlycraft aircrews. Of course the pin is different, the detail is way better, and the center emblem is different. But the way the flat back has that center circle with a bit of an offcenter strike is something I've seen several times on Beverlys maybe someone has an example like that to compare? Just a guess...

[rustywings]

Mike, I think you've come up with an excellent comparison. And Beverly Craft was known to alter or add to many of their aerial badges.

[David B]

My apologies for bringing this 3 year old thread back to life but I was wondering if there are any more thoughts on the manufacturer of this wing. I now own the wing (after it was very kindly gifted to me by the seller) and it's a real beauty, it's definitely silver but is devoid of any markings.

[David B]

.

[pfrost]

Everything about this wing makes me think it is a modified Beverly Craft wing. Todd did a nice bit of research into Beverly Craft

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/206883-beverly-craft-history/.

 

IIRC it was a small Mom and Pop type firm. It is entirely possible that this was a one-off or custom-made piece.

[David B]

Fantastic, thanks Patrick and to Todd too for the excellent research! This is definitely a very interesting wing and it certainly does look like it's some form of Beverlycraft product, I've never seen another wing like it.

[5thwingmarty]

This may have been made in a similar fashion as a Beverlycraft wing, but it is not just a modified Beverlycraft aircrew wing. There are detail differences in the seals between this and my Beverlycraft aircrew wing including the horizontal lines behind the eagle, the starred wreath above the eagle, the tail of the eagle, the shield on the eagle's breast, and the cluster of arrows the eagle is holding. The circle around the shield is wider with a flatter-looking front on my wing. Looking at the backs of the wings, the bottom edge profiles are very different as well. The front of my wing matches that of the one on Bob's website as well so I am assuming it is a typical example of a Beverlycraft aircrew wing.

[pfrost]

By modification, I should have said variant.

[mghcal]

Here is my example of the same wing. I still believe it's made by BeverlyCraft. Here is Tod's explanation of the odd reverse of these wings.

 

"Because of the unique nature of the embossing press that C.C. Veneman ended up using, each wing has a central depression where the embossing die would hit a center punch to give some rise and dimension to the obverse of the center device. Otherwise the reverse of the wings are totally flat and smooth."

 

Another thing I just noticed was that the catch on mine is actually upside down. The pegleg character strikes again!

 

 

[mghcal]

Reverse

 

[5thwingmarty]

Both of these have the same pin and catch, and both wings have them mounted on the normal sides of the wing unlike normal Beverlycraft wings. I think if these were made by Beverlycraft, at least one of them would have had the pin and catch mounted on the opposite sides, and at least one would have had a Beverlycraft hallmark. My vote is going to stay with another manufacturer using a similar manufacturing process. The only Beverlycraft wings I have seen without a hallmark have been bombardier wings.

[Kimo]

How do you know they are sterling? The original post said they were tested, but how were they tested? Acid testing will only tell what the metal on the surface is and so if something is silver plated it will test as silver. To use acid with any confidence one needs to cut down into the metal and expose the metal in the core and test that. However I hate to think of anyone actually cutting down into any wings so there are two non-destructive methods - the first is specific gravity and the second is X-ray Fluorescence. Both require specific testing equipment that the average collector is not likely to have but a good jeweler or major pawn shop may. Absent such testing the best one can say about unmarked things that appear to be silver is they are unmarked and the metal is unknown.

[David B]

That's the first time I've seen another wing of this type, fantastic!

 

The wing was also tested at a university on some kind of analysing machine (the name escapes me) and yes a small "scraping" was done to uncover the base metal, this was so small I can't even find it on the badge anymore as it has formed patina again. The test came back with the majority of the composition being Ag, a small amount of Cu and micro amounts of something else but I can't remember what. So yes it's sterling :-)

[rathbonemuseum.com]

I actually believe this is a Moody Bros example as documented in this post with a marked and unmarked example. Yes, not a typical style with detailed feathers for them.