Kinney Company of Providence, RI: examples and patterns

[5thwingmarty]

I just picked this one up.  It measures 1-7/8" in span.  Stylistically the general feather details are similar to my 1.5" and 3" Kinney pilot wings, but the shoulder feather details and overall profile are completely different.  My only complaint is that whoever assembled this wing made it look like the U and the S are not getting along and wanted to be as far apart as possible on the shield.  The space between them is twice that of the letters on my only two full-size RMA wings.  Maybe after this whole Covid thing goes away they will lessen the space between them.

Marty

 

[Costa]

nice

[rathbonemuseum.com]

that is sweet

[blind pew]

On ‎5‎/‎1‎/‎2020 at 1:34 PM, 5thwingmarty said:

I just picked this one up.  It measures 1-7/8" in span.  Stylistically the general feather details are similar to my 1.5" and 3" Kinney pilot wings, but the shoulder feather details and overall profile are completely different.  My only complaint is that whoever assembled this wing made it look like the U and the S are not getting along and wanted to be as far apart as possible on the shield.  The space between them is twice that of the letters on my only two full-size RMA wings.  Maybe after this whole Covid thing goes away they will lessen the space between them.

Marty

 

Very cool. Did you get that from Daniel griffin?

Are you aware of any full size Kinney wings, or just the smaller ones? Where were they made?

[5thwingmarty]

I only have a non-hallmarked Kinney pattern full size pilot wing.  I did some checking here on the forum and found a thread where Russ shared images of three other full-size Kinneys, an Airship Pilot, an Aeronaut (balloon pilot with the letters US) and a Naval Aviator.

 

There may be threads where other full-size Kinneys are shown.  That thread says the thought is that Kinney went out of business in the 1930's and they were located in provenance, RI.  Russ also shared a 1-7/8" wing like mine in that thread.  I think Kinney actually survived much longer as there are items on ebay attributed to Kinney up until the Vietnam conflict.

 

[cwnorma]

31 minutes ago, blind pew said:

Are the full size Kinney wings WW1 or post war?

blind pew,

As far as I know, Kinney did not make full-size wing badges during the WW1 period.  If they did, they do not appear to have marked their wares.  It is possible some currently unattributed pattern may have been made by Kinney, but as of yet I know of no evidence supporting that.  

The company clearly made sweetheart badges during (or possibly just after) the WW1 era as evidenced by the diminutive badges with the US on shield.  

Someone else who knows the details of the inter-war period better than I will have to weigh in... I do believe some  of the full size badges by Kinney date to the early "Adams" period (1919-1930s).

Chris

[5thwingmarty]

I believe the only two full-size Kinney wings that might be considered WWI patterns are the Naval Aviator and the Aeronaut.  All of the others are post WWI types first authorized and specified in 1921.  If Kinney didn't start making full-sized wings until then, I don't know why they would have made Aeronaut wings and not just Balloon Observer wings (without the US).  I am also curious why Kinney did not appear to have made any Airplane Observer wings.

[5thwingmarty]

Another little Kinney joined the flock so I thought I would share a family photo of my little Kinney wing collection.  The little Military Airplane Pilot / Senior Aviator is the new arrival.  If I can ever catch a little Kinney Airship Pilot I think that would complete the set of 1-1/2" wings (excluding duplicates with different finishes).

 

[LuftStalg1]

Beautiful wings, congrats on the collection.

[pfrost]

Cool beans

[Tesla]

Very nice!

[5thwingmarty]

Thanks all.  I wish I could grow them all into full-size wings.

[Gerradtgrant]

Holy Flock. Nice wings Sir! Possible to see the back?

Sent from my motorola edge plus using Tapatalk

[5thwingmarty]

Here are the backs. 

 

I have seen photos of full-sized Kinney Airship Pilot, Naval Aviator and Aeronaut wings, but I have never seen a full-size Kinney Military Airplane Pilot / Senior Pilot wing.  Has anyone seen such a wing?  Mine is the only small-size Aeronaut wing I have seen so I am curious if anyone else has seen another?

 

[blind pew]

On 11/4/2020 at 8:32 PM, 5thwingmarty said:

Thanks all.  I wish I could grow them all into full-size wings.

 

Plenty of light, fertilizer and water should do the trick!

 

 

[5thwingmarty]

Something is wrong with my fertilizer.  Instead of growing bigger they just sprouted a smaller one.  Sorry my photography makes them all look gold, but the new bracelet is actually gold filled.

 

[rustywings]

Marty,

You've accumulated a terrific representation of Kinney-made examples!  At this rate of growth, your outstanding Bell-made collection may soon need to take a back seat!

Thank you for posting your collection updates...    

[blind pew]

I was wondering if Kinney made any WW1 pilot wings greater than 1.875 inches wide. It seems like whenever they come up, which is not that often, they are all "smaller" such size wings. Has anyone ever encountered "full" size Kinney pilot wings that are 3+ inches wide?

[cwnorma]

blind pew,

 

I have not encountered a full sized WW1 wing marked Kinney.  If they made one of the multitude of unmarked wings, to my knowledge, that information has not yet come to light.

 

Every badge I have seen marked Kinney is from the 20s-30s.

 

Chris

 

 

[5thwingmarty]

I am not aware of Kinney making any full size WWI pilot wings, at least none that have a Kinney hallmark.  Kinney did make full size wings after WWI for the Airplane Pilot, Military Airplane Pilot, Aeronaut, Airship Pilot and Naval Aviator ratings.  Technically the Aeronaut could be considered a WWI style wing, but I am not aware of anyone having an attributed one that dates to WWI.

 

I have been wondering why Kinney never made any Observer wings, since they made all the other "between the wars" Air Service ratings.

 

Marty

[blind pew]

So the 1.875 inch Kinney wings marked with the Kinney stamp on the reverse are all post war from the 1920s and 1930s?

[5thwingmarty]

I presume they are, but without any kind of provenance or documentation like a dated photo or sales catalog, there is no way to know when they began making wings.  The oldest reference I have found for the company was dated 1919, and the company president at that time was Theodore B. Pierce so I presume the company began well before 1919.  It is possible they made insignia during WWI, but again have no documentation for that.

[pfrost]

My research may be flawed but I think I read that the hallmark was trademarked in the 30’s. It was always my assumption that Kinney wasn’t around during WWI. Thus the lack oh WWI wings

[5thwingmarty]

I did some more digging and found the attached that shows Kinney was around at least as early as 1907.

 

[pfrost]

Well there you go!  I was wrong.  Not the first time, I fear. 

 

It is entirely possible that one of the unknown WWI wing manufactured patterns was made by Kinney.  There are a few patterns that even our world renowned "WWI wing pattern-expert" (looking at you Chis!) don't know who made them.

 

Its also possible that making military jewelry during the war wasn't something that they were interested in tapping into.

 

For example, I found a fair amount of evidence that some companies, like T.V. Alan, were also big manufacturers of college jewelry, but didn't tap into the Military market, or if they did, it was only to make a few wings. 

 

Other ideas are that perhaps they were making stuff for wholesale to the military or other retail companies and as such didn't hallmark them. 

 

Perhaps because provenance RI isn't that large of a "military town" or that the relative loingt time that would have been needed to tool up a product line for the relatively short time between 1917 and early 1919 or so, just wouldn't have been feasible or profitable? So they didn't.

 

To paraphrase the movie Spinal Tap about Kinney's possible motivations:  I wouldn't worry about it though, it's not a big college town... I just think that the.. uh.. their appeal is becoming more selective."

 

My best guess is that they had a board meeting in late 1917 and decided that to keep things "interesting" on various military collecting forums 100+ years later, they were not going to hallmark their pieces...