interesting unusual W.W.2 A.E. Co. wings

[donaldnol]

Very entrusting wing it has an extra piece metal add to the pin unit i asked the lady who had this and she replied it was found in a box of collectables and proceeds for the sales will go to helping the veterans. it went for $40.00

[Allan H.]

That appears to be a keeper for a lady's hat pin. I wonder if it might have been added to the pin to provide a little more bulk behind the wing so that it would sit tighter against the fabric of the uniform jacket? It is undoubtedly not original to the wing. Another interesting aspect of this wing is the severe wear to the lettering on the back side of the wing. I don't know if I have ever seen a wing with as much wear to the back side as this example.

 

It is a nice, original with lots of character!

 

Allan

[cwnorma]

Allan,

 

I have occasionally encountered these hat/stick pin keepers/safes on vintage wings.  I don't know if they were marketed this way or if enterprising soldiers used them to make their insignia a little bit more secure?  Here is one example:

 

 

Chris

[pfrost]

The AE Co wings are really poor quality, in general.  To address Alan's point, that is EXACTLY what most of them look like.  The dies used were pretty worn (or became worn) and the lettering on the back almost always looks like that.  I think AE Co had some really poor quality control.

 

As to Chris' point, if you collect long enough, you will find all sorts of bits and bobs used to attach the wings.  Repairs, some professional, some done in the garage at home, are common.  As a collector, I actually like the salty, repaired ones.  It was well loved and used!  Plus, many of these guys had an aversion to throwing things away (likely due to the Great Depression).

Its a great salty wing, made by a well known (if poor quality) company.  I love it!

 

A few years ago, anything marked AECo sold well.  It would have been hard to find this wing for anything less than 80$ at a show.  Now... not so much.  With patience, you can find one in the 20-30$ range, but 40$ isn't bad.  The aircrew wings are pretty common.  If you can find an AECo balloon or airship wing... now youre talking!

[Allan H.]

Thanks for the comments Patrick. I agree that AE Co quality was not the finest and I have discussed the number of dings to the back side of other AE Co wings from where the die was damaged from hammering of some sort. I It is interesting to me that I don't see these knocks to the reverse side on the Air Crew wing, but they are so apparent on some many other AE examples. As for the lettering, I'll agree that they never look pristine, but I never noticed them looking this worn.

 

Allan

[pfrost]

There seems to be a range, from worn to really worn to worn as sh*t.  LOL.  They probably made a ton of these guys between 1942 and 1948 or so.  I rather suspect that they didn't have that many dies to use, so some of the hallmarks are going to be more worn than others.  This may also be exasperated by how polished (or not) the wings are, if they are dinged up, dirty, etc.

 

The company seemed to use a variety of hallmarks, including the inverted triangle, a plain stamping of "AE Co".  I suspect that they weren't all that interested in how the marked the wing insignia.  Just sort of "Hey buddy, did you put our name on that last die you made?  No, well just put something there on the back".