World War One Weekly Wings - B. Pasquale Co.

[cwnorma]

World War One Weekly Wings (special)

B. Pasquale Co. San Francisco

 

 

Background

Definitively determining the manufacturer of World War One era bullion wings is challenging.   Bullion manufacturers rarely labeled their products, and when they did they often only did so upon their retail packaging—long discarded.  It thus is a rare treat for collectors when when a WW1 era badge can be assigned to a specific firm.  One way to make this association is by finding an example matching a unique illustration in a period trade catalog.

B. Pasquale Catalog for 1919

 

Most wing collectors are familiar with the B. Pasquale Co. of San Francisco; if for no other reason than the occasionally encountered (and oft discussed) reproduction Airship Pilot badge marked “Pasquali.”  That particular piece of gimcrackery should not be allowed to tarnish the firms reputation!  The actual B. Pasquale Co. was once one of the nation’s largest military goods suppliers, ranking with the likes of M.C. Lilley, Pettibone, and W. Stokes Kirk.  Without a doubt, Pasquale’s was the largest such firm operating on the west coast of the United States and was in business for over a century!

 

Benoit Pasquale started his San Francisco business in 1854.  Located in coastal California, much of Pasquale’s trade was with the United States Navy.  However the Presidio in San Francisco, and it smaller cousin just south in Monterrey both boasted small components of Army Aviation along with their ground-based garrisons.  Nearby, Sacramento hosted Mather Field. Pasquale's would endeavor to provide for these young Airmen’s uniform and insignia needs with his Post St. San Francisco store and through his catalogs.

 

Various Air Service Insignia available through Pasquale's catalog.

 

Collar insignia of the type marketed by Pasquale (manufactured by Blackington?)

 

Much discussion has been made with respect to whether or not Pasquale’s was more of a manufacturer or retailer.  Certainly Pasquale’s had some manufacturing capacity, but in other known cases (i.e. metal Naval Aviator badges) the firm evidently contracted with other entities (i.e. Blackington).  Thus, it cannot be said with any certainty whether this somewhat unique bullion pattern was actually manufactured by Pasquale's.  However, due to its inclusion in their catalog it is safe to conclude that Pasquale, at the very least, marketed this particular pattern.

 

Associated Airfields

Presidio of San Francisco Flying Field (later renamed Chrissy Field), Mather Field and Aviation General Supply Depot (Sacramento)

 

 

Description:

Reserve Military Aviator, bullion, pin-back

 

Manufacture

A somewhat distinctive American-made embroidered badge.  Design wise, the Pasquale badge is generally similar with other American-made badges such as WWOWW #29 or #30.  As is often the case, especially with bullion, where it differs are matters of details.

 

Wings. Each long, narrow wing is characterized by a first row of feathers picked out individually in silver bullion, surmounted by a shoulder of individual clustered feathers  constructed of vanes of smooth silver bullion and rachis of contrasting faceted bullion. In the lower row, individual feathers are delineated with lines of fine black thread.  A coil of fine silver bullion runs along the entire top and side of each wing.

 

Shield. In contrast to the thin wings, the shield is large, and quite rectangular with only moderate points at the top and bottom.  This oversize oblong shield juts significantly below the bottoms of the long, narrow wings.  The chief contains 13 small "stars" executed with smooth bullion in an x-configuration affixed atop a field of horizontal rows of smooth silver bullion.  Unique to this badge, the “stars” are configured in three rows.  The top row consists of three stars, one occupying each upper point of the shield.  Below are two evenly spaced rows of five stars each.  The example has lost most of the bullion from its uppermost two rows of stars to time.  Giving the appearance of “stripes” the field portion consists of alternating vertical columns of three smooth and one faceted silver bullion.  The chief and field portion are separated by a coil of silver bullion.  The shield perimeter is bordered by coiled bullion wire.

 

The US consists of gold bullion coils configured in a two-strand twisted helix with matching gold periods after each letter

 

Mountings. The badge is mounted on a thin brass plate shaped as an inverted, isosceles triangle.  Were the back plate shaped differently, the oversize shield would undoubtedly look out of place.  Together, the badge’s unique dimensions and the triangular backplate combine to create esthetically pleasing balance.  The backing cloth laps the plate approximately 90% and is sewn fast. An unusual U-shaped safety catch with rocker arm and hinge/pin assembly are soldered to the back plate.

 

Overall. The relatively long, thin wings and large square shield combine to give the badge a somewhat unique appearance. Both wings and shield are moderately padded.

 

Notes.  This particular example had a very long service life.  I have photos of the original owner wearing it proudly during WW2.  I would be interested to see if there are any more of these B. Pasquale and Co. badges out there!  Especially any with the field of stars intact.

 

Chris

 

 

[rathbonemuseum.com]

Thanks Chris for the new addition.

[cwnorma]

48 minutes ago, rathbonemuseum.com said:

Thanks Chris for the new addition.

Tod,

 

Hopefully someone will take a look at a wing in their collection and say, "Hey! I have one of those!" and post it here.

 

Chris

[pfrost]

Chris, I am happy you got that group.  I looked at it, but chose not to pull the trigger (although now that YOU have it, I feel totally betrayed... LOL).  I love bullion wings and this is a nice one, with some cool provenance and a neat ID to a vintage add for B. Pascale. Well done.

 

BTW, I have some similar wings, but not exact matches.

[cwnorma]

Patrick,

 

Thanks for the kind words.  The whole thing developed in a rather comical fashion.  About 3 weeks before I bought the wing, I became aware of the existence of reprints of Pasquale's 1919 catalog having a wing badge illustration.  I made a mental note to get a copy, and as I always do... proceeded to forget all about it.  Then that wing showed up on the auction and two and two came crashing down on my head.  I had to get it:  It was a maker-identifiable bullion badge!  So then I really had to get that dang catalog.

 

The personal history is neat too.  I especially like how he chose to continue to wear his WW1 wing throughout WW2 (at least for photographs).  Probably to show those young whipper-snapper draftee's that he was an "old timer."  He retired from the AF Reserve in 1947 and they promoted him to Colonel for his retirement.  Although he never served overseas, he was in two wars in the; Air Service, Air Corps, Army Air Forces and US Air Force.

 

I'm honestly a bit surprised that as big as Pasquale's was, there aren't more of these floating around.  I think this one may be the first I'd seen (although its possible that I saw one and it flew under the radar...)  I went combing through archived photos too and also could not find one exactly the same.  One wonders if Pasquale's didn't get a small batch of these, photo it for their catalog, proceed to sell out, then never get more?

 

Chris

[pfrost]

It is entirely possible that they didn't actually have a stock on hand that was more than a few wings at any one time.  I suspect that they sent a line drawing or photo of what they had to the publisher and that was it.  Maybe a few orders came through (I always suspect most of this tailoring was done by mail order of by appointment) and an order was sent to the person making the bullion. I understand it was a cottage industry and who ever it was (the lady down the street who did this part time, another shop that did bullion work, or the in-shop seamstress), made the number of badges that were ordered.  No muss, no fuss. Mail order catalogs were the rage back then.

 

Great interesting wing, though.

[cwnorma]

@5thwingmarty recently contacted me and passed along a much higher resolution scan of the B. Pasquale Co. catalog page.  Posting here for the record:

 

 

Thanks Marty!

 

Chris

 

[bschwartz]

I'll take one of each.  I have my $12 ready to go.  Heck, let's make it two of each.  

[5thwingmarty]

It is too bad Pasquale didn't include an image of the sterling wing they were also offering.  From the description I envision a heavy slick-back Noble pattern wing, with Hercules fittings and applied gold U.S.