Ribbon Question

[Tom Pearcy]

What was the intended purpose (if any) for the a swatches ribbons. I see these periodically with groups. I have a group of medals and ribbons I acquired and with it were several loose pieces of ribbon. Curious.

[Cobra 6 Actual]

One possibility is that they intended to have the medal mounted with a swath of ribbon in the corner, like this:

 

 

(Sorry couldn’t find a military image on the Internet, but you get the idea with this pic I’m sure.) 

[Blacksmith]

6 minutes ago, Cobra 6 Actual said:

One possibility is that they intended to have the medal mounted with a swath of ribbon in the corner, like this:

 

 

(Sorry couldn’t find a military image on the Internet, but you get the idea with this pic I’m sure.) 

That is a good theory, but the lengths of ribbon are very short.

 

My understanding - which is open to correction - is that the spare sections of ribbon were meant as repair material for the ribbon proper.  I actually don’t think the spare material is long enough to rebuild a proper medal drape, if necessary.

[AustinO]

The extra bit of ribbon was included with some medals for the awardees use in custom ribbon bar creation.  The practice of direct sewn ribbon bars (as well as custom ribbon racks) was still quite common in the early part of WW2.