A couple ovals

[akriener]

Came across these ovals and they caught my attention because someone on here told me recently I should be looking for felt ovals for WWII era. One is a claimed 506 and the other a 504. If the one was a true 506 that would be a big deal for me as my great uncle was A Co., 506th PIR, 101st. Why they are written on the back I don't know, perhaps the collector did so. Any comments or opinions are appreciated!

 

 

[Airborne-Hunter]

These are not period originals.

[akriener]

13 minutes ago, Airborne-Hunter said:

These are not period originals.

Thanks. I noticed the pinned WWII wings and ovals thread has a lot of broken images in it.

[doyler]

Agree with AH... these are repro

[Allan H.]

Me three! Reproductions.

 

Allan

[pfrost]

I am not an oval person (they are really too small to be used as a coaster for beer, unlike a normal squadron patch...).  But I do not like them either.

 

Coming for an area of complete ignorance, I do not like them because of the stitching of the edge and the fact that the back of the oval has what I have heard call "tea staining"

 

I hope that the experts can correct me where I am wrong.  Be brutal, I only learn by being punished for my stupidity!  LOL

 

1) the thread that is used to line the oval is rather thick, loosely stitched by hand, and has a large untidy tie on the back.  I learned some time ago that those characteristics were used by an England-based reproduction artist making WWII-style hand embroidered squadron patches.  These were very commonly sold on ebay.  The best "tell" was that they had thick, loosely sewn threads that were oriented in long parallel lines.  On the back, there were lots of loose threads that were sloppily tied off.  Just like these ovals, but in a larger scale.

 

2) a patch guru once told me that a common trick to "age" fabric patches is to dip them into a strong mixture of tea (or other suitable liquid.. he told me tea).  This gives the fabric a stained (usually brownish or grey) color, but the problem is that both the front AND back of the patch became dirty.  In reality, patches sewn on a uniform would only (typically) have the front get dirty, while the back would remain relatively pristine.  And if the patch was never sewn onto a garment, then both the front and back should be about the same.  ANd so, obviously, the front of the patch should almost never be LESS dirty than the back. The problem with "tea-staining" is that the WHOLE patch (front and back) becomes stained. 

 

There is a nice thread on this here:

 

In these patches, the back of the ovals are much more dirty than the front.  The two patches shown in this thread appear to have had a staining liquid judiciously dripped on the oval with an eye dropper.  It doesn't make sense to me that this is a natural staining process.

 

So, going back to those English fake pathes, they usually were typically sewn onto thick felt backing and had a variety of "stains" artificially added to make them look aged.  Tea-stains, dirt liberally rubbed into the fabric and a variety of other tricky aging processes.  That kind of accurately describes these... no?

 

Am I correct that these may have been made by that English faker?  Other than that, I really don't have much other insight into these ovals.

[akriener]

Thank you all for your feedback!