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Thoughts on This Jostens WASP Wing - Possible post-war reunion wing


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Here is another wing I have in my collection that I would very much value everyone's opinion about it. I picked it up 30 years ago as a rescue from a scrap silver dealer so it is not recent production. It is hallmarked "JOSTENS" above the word "STERLING" and is full sized, clutch back WASP wing. The two little clutch holders that were on it when I found it are each marked STERLING along with patent numbers as well. They have the same patina as the wing so they seem to be original to this wing. It is nicely made and the back has a patina from having been pinned on a uniform for many years.

 

Thanks in advance for looking at these photos and sharing your opinions, thoughts, etc.

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I have 3 Josten WASP wings in my collection. One pair was purchased from the original owner and has her name inscribed on the back.

All 3 are identical. Unfortunately I don't believe your wings are original.

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I learned from a well-informed militaria collector this morning that "Josten" changed their name to "Jostens" many years ago, sometime after WWII. (I checked Jostens' current website and called their "Military/Armed Forces" company representative, but could not narrow down a date or specific year for the name change).

 

I also learned today that "Jostens" did make die-struck WASP wings for post-war reunions using the original wartime die, but with several changes:

1.) Pin-back instead of clutch-back.

2.) Smooth back with no diamond indentation.

3.) The Jostens hallmark was stamped in the center, rather than on one wing.

 

So, it appears your illustrated WASP wing may be a legitimate product of the renamed "Jostens" company and made for an early WASP reunion event. Your wing certainly doesn't look like any of those mass-produced cast WASP wings made for later reunions and gift shop sales... and may have real collector value in its own right.

 

If there's a chance of posting crisper close-up images of your wing in question, especially the hallmark and the studs with clutches removed, it might further our discussion? (Kimo, if your WASP wing is indeed an early Jostens reunion piece, I'm wondering if someone may have replaced the pin and catch with studs and sterling clutches in an effort to make it appear more like a war-period badge?)

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I can't recall who told me this, but I recall that the maker of Josten (without the S) wings was NOT the same as the ring/yearbook makers Jostens (with the S)

This is from WIkipedia: "Begun in 1897 by Otto Josten, Jostens (then called "Josten's" — the apostrophe was later dropped) began manufacturing emblems and awards for nearby schools and in 1906, the year of incorporation, Josten added class rings to his product line, to be sold to schools throughout the Midwest.[13] The company remained small and relatively inconspicuous until Daniel C. Gainey, a former teacher and football coach, was hired in 1922 as the first full-time Jostens ring salesman. By 1923 Gainey had enlisted four more sales representatives, thus class rings became the central concern for the Jostens Manufacturing Company.

During World War II, Jostens contributed to the war effort by adapting its plant and equipment to manufacture precision parts and other materials. Major expansion came following the end of the war. In 1946 the company added graduation announcements to its offerings; in 1950 Jostens launched the American Yearbook Company. In 1958 the company made its first acquisition, purchasing the Ohio-based Educational Supply Company, a manufacturer of school diplomas. Jostens went public the following year obtained its listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 1965. The company expanded into the Canadian photography market in 1968 with the purchase of Winnipeg-based National School Studios. Jostens relocated to Minneapolis in 1969.

 

Jostens bought the Hunter Publishing Company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1998, making it one of six yearbook and commercial printing plants (Clarksville, State College, Topeka, Visalia and Winnipeg being the others).

 

Photography operations were later ended in 2001. Printing was consolidated later in Clarksville, Visalia and Winnipeg, with the Winston-Salem plant being shuttered in 2009."

It is clear that all the JOSTEN marked wings lack the "S" on the hallmark, even though (according to the above it should be JOSTENS or JOSTEN'S). This makes me wonder if we aren't conflating two different companies.

Here is a thread.

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/85523-josten-wings-question/

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On the other hand, here are a couple of JOSTEN marked class rings. SO maybe they are the same? In fact, I did a search and it seems that all the JOSTEN rings I found don't use the "S".

The rings I looked at covered the mid-1930's to recent time. So It doesn't appear that (at least for rings) they changed the hallmark.

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Thanks for the additional thoughts. Here are some more photos as requested. I have tried to use some different lighting and better brace my hand holding my camera to get them to be a bit less fuzzy. These are hefty wings, they are not thin and light-weight. The front has very smooth and deep detail and is nothing like any cast wings that I have seen. There is some honest wear to the fronts as well - on the high spots. The back is slightly matte finish, but without the unevenness or porosity of cast wings. On the back, behind the central diamond shape there is a diamond shaped indentation in the metal and this is where the hallmarks JOSTENS and STERLING are cleanly stamped into the metal. The posts are soldered/welded directly to the back and there is absolutely no indication that there ever was a pin back there. These posts are original to the wing and there has been no replacing of a pin back - it has not been tampered with in any way. There is a mottled surface coating of a dark greenish substance on parts of the back - mainly on the backs of the wings and especially around the posts and it is also on the separate clutches. It gives the appearance that this wing had been mounted on a dark green wool(?) jacket/coat for a long time and that some of the wool(?) has stuck to the wing and the clutches. The spacing of this substance suggests that it came from being in long term contact with the warp and weft of a fabric. The heaviest areas are around the posts where the wing would have been pressed the firmest against the coat/jacket by the clutches.

 

I will post a couple more photos in just a moment due to size limits on this response. Please let me know if you would like me to take any additional photos or close ups of any parts of these wings.

 

 

 

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Here are a couple more photos.

 

Kimo, thank you for the additional images. It sure appears your WASP wing is a well-made die-struck example. I see nothing in your images to suggest it was cast. Just an opinion... but I think your wing is an authentic "Jostens" hallmarked postwar reunion badge with nail-head style posts attached. I look forward to hearing what others have to say...

 

Oh, BTW, that foreign substance on the back of your wing might be old decomposing foam? Riker Mounts sold in the 1960's & 70's came with a variety of cheap colored foam. Unfortunately, that foam didn't do well with heat and humidity... and broke down rather quickly... becoming more harm than good for our collectibles.

 

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Thanks Rustywings. Some kind of old dark colored Riker foam sounds like a possibility, though it is hard to tell for just what it is. Was that old foam Rikers used to have thin enough for such a wing to be pressed into it in such a way that the circular clutches could have been pressed down onto the nails to hold it in place? The dark stuff is on those as well as on the back of the wing which suggests to me that the substance that left the residue was compressed in between the wing and the clutches which is what I was thinking some kind of wool material like on a coat/jacket/

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I can't add anything to the discussion but just wanted to say this has been a very interesting thread. Thank you for posting your wings. I LOVE WASP items!

 

...Kat

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The JOSTENS hallmarks shown in the second ring in pfrosts's posting and the ring in ram957's posting are not actually "JOSTENS" but rather

"© JOSTENS". I would think that the copyright symbol in front of the letters JOSTENS might suggest those are a later hallmark but that is just a guess. My thinking is that legal issues involving copyrights tend to be intricacies that might be more likely to be in the past 40 years or so rather than something from the 1930s or 1940s or even 1950s? Just a thought and I may be wrong. In any case, my wing's hallmark is different in that it does not have the copyright symbol as part of the work JOSTENS

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The nice thing is that you can do a google search for Josten rings and find all sorts of your own examples. Many of the high school, collage and military rings are dated (i.e. Class of '45). I think the copyrighted wing was from the 1960's but the other ring was from 1945 or so. There really shouldn't be much guess work there. I spent about 20 minutes looking and didn't find any JOSTENS examples, but obviously I didn't do a full search.

 

The copyright of Josten vs Jostens vs Josten's is a good question They would very much have the exact name I suspect. As I said, someone once told me that the Josten that made the wings was different than the Jostens that made the rings, but I don't recall what proof they had.

 

Still, you would think that somewhere the extant Jostens company would have something about being the original manufacturer of WASP wings and the reunion wings. Worth a call.

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I agree that they are more than likely nicely made post WW2 reunion wings. Still a nice item and it's great to see them. Thanks for sharing.

 

JD

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just to add a bit more to this thread:

 

According to "He who shall not be named" (so take it with a grain of salt) in an article he wrote about the history of WASP wings, there were a number of "true" reunion wings made (See "The Wings of the WASP’s"--it should be available on the internet. Note this is a "professional" courtesy to him, as he rarely extends the same to other's work, I may add.

 

I assume that the reunion wings were intended for the original WASPS at one or more of their gatherings or memorials, as opposed to "WASP-like" souvenir wings sold to the public or outright fakes.

 

Apparently a batch of reunion wings were made in 1986 or so, and had a pin back (there is a statement that only about 50 were made). Then he says in "1994 The original was made in China for a company in Arkansas. These were used in museums on uniforms as the real one were being stolen." The photo he provides of that wing is of a clutch back wing very similar to the one in this thread.

 

It is not clear to me from this article if Josten actually made either of these set of wings or how they would have been hallmarked. However, Russ' information seems to be that these wings were, in fact, made by Josten(S).

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These could not have been from the 1986 or 1994 productions. I just went digging into my old records from when I was buying many wings and found that I bought these in 1979. They were part of a large number I bought that year from several scrap silver dealers who buying silver hand over fist from sellers who were enticed by the soaring price of silver when the silver marker was being manipulated at that point. People were combing their attics and basements for anything made of silver as the price soared every day until it finally peaked at $61 an ounce in November of 1979. Scrap dealers were buying so fast that they were taking in buckets full of silver every day. I was able to sweet talk some dealers nearby to let me paw through their buckets and pay them 150 percent of the price per ounce of silver for any wings that I found. These are from that time and they had age on them even then.

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That is why you have to take what "He who shall not be named" says with a grain of salt.

 

There are a few wicked-smart WASP collectors around and probably talked to any number of the original WASPs who could tell you when any reunion pieces were made and if they showed up in any of the original WASP's posessions.

 

IIRC it was about the mid- to late-1970's when the WASPs were officially recognized by Congress for their service.

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