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"Miles" of Silk Framed by Bullion- Bullion wing examples


mtnman
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doinworkinvans

Tha CBI flight surgeon is unreal - that's the stuff dreams are made of

 

Thank you all for sharing all of these

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  • 3 weeks later...

I wanted to share these with everyone, which came in recently. It is a pilot wing in bullion with a very fine configuration and Triple Crown shield which I found very attractive. What truly delighted me about these wings, I did not recognize until I received them. Look in the pale of the shield and you will see a type of bullion I had never seen before. The columns, or pallets, vertically positioned in the pale of the shield are interspersed with a standard bullion concatenated with a screw pattern bullion which is absolutely beautiful!

 

Enjoy gentlemen and lady collectors....

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Rear of this World War II sewn onto gabardine cloth as the first layer and keeping its form is some kind of backing that is very pliable but sturdy along with grid threaded cheesecloth like material used to anchor the pattern and help the seamstress to follow her desired pattern in all its creative glory.

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  • 1 year later...

Okay Gentleman and Lady collectors, let's see your bullion..... bring 'em out!!

Being a new guy, I'm not sure if I should attach my post to an old thread or start a new one. Anyway, here's a bullion bombardier from my meager collection. I have no expertise--I just collect what I like. So, any observations will add to my knowledge pool, which right now is empty.

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It is beautiful. My question is how does one tell if a pair of bullion wings is war time or sometime after the war? They are still being made today for example. The beautifully made ones in the original post seem to have some similarities to more recently made wings to my eye than wartime ones. How can one tell for sure about age without solid provenance?

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You are right about the timing. Most of us as collectors like to draw clear lines in the sand that probably didn't exist in reality. As I have said before, its not like the makers of insignia said "well its June of 45, so we need to start retooling all our processes and start making post-war insignia!".

 

I think with bullion you just kind of have to collect what you like and leave it at that. There are some ways to tell the early from the later stuff, but (at least for me), I look at them as little stand-alone works of art and don't really try to stress the "date" of manufacture. Sometimes you find them on uniforms and that helps define when they may have been made. Sometimes you find similar patterns of bullion work that can be linked to specific places or times of production. Sometimes you just have to use your best judgement.

 

USN wings are probably the worst as they were popular and made all through the pre-, war and post-war time periods.

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It is beautiful. My question is how does one tell if a pair of bullion wings is war time or sometime after the war? They are still being made today for example. The beautifully made ones in the original post seem to have some similarities to more recently made wings to my eye than wartime ones. How can one tell for sure about age without solid provenance?

I don't know the story behind these wings. When held up to the light, you can see the holes around the edges where it was sewn to something (my guess would be summer {?} uniform). The AAF/USAF used this style until about 1951, so I can't pinpoint their time of actual use. As pfrost recommends regarding bullion, sometimes you've just gotta "collect what you like and leave it at that."

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  • 3 months later...
AAF_Collection

Being a new guy, I'm not sure if I should attach my post to an old thread or start a new one. Anyway, here's a bullion bombardier from my meager collection. I have no expertise--I just collect what I like. So, any observations will add to my knowledge pool, which right now is empty.

These are very nice!. They are definitely WWII period English made wings, originally they were on blue felt, you can still see some traces, but unfortunately moths have eaten the wool felt away, leaving the underlay and backing material intact.
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Because of the amount of finely detailed workmanship that goes into most of these my guess is that most were made somewhere between India and Southeast Asia where that level of expertise combined with very low wages would have made such wings and other badges affordable.

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