Wings from the Putnam Green/Sycamore Collection

[Tolzer]

Provenance: Rock Island Auction Company; Lot 1466; The Putnam Green/Sycamore Collection; (August 2022). 

 

WB-48

Named: inscribed "FROM/E.W.McCOLLUM/AND CREW/TO/MAJOR PEABODY/U.S.A."

Weight: 8 g

 

I believe that this piece was made by Sweeney under contract by Eisenstadt?

[Tolzer]

Provenance: Rock Island Auction Company; Lot 1466; The Putnam Green/Sycamore Collection; (August 2022). 

 

WWI, Bombing Military Aviator Wing

Weight 6 g

[Tolzer]

Provenance: Rock Island Auction Company; Lot 1466; The Putnam Green/Sycamore Collection; (August 2022). 

 

WWI Naval Aviator Wing

Maker: Robert Stoll

Weight: 10 g

[manayunkman]

Some beautiful wings, thank you for posting.

[Tolzer]

Provenance: Rock Island Auction Company; Lot 1466; The Putnam Green/Sycamore Collection; (August 2022)

 

Unknown Maker

Weight: 20g

[Tolzer]

Provenance: Rock Island Auction Company; Lot 1466; The Putnam Green/Sycamore Collection; (August 2022)

 

WB-11

1917, Half Wing

Maker: Tiffany Company

Weight: 10 g

[Tolzer]

Provenance: Rock Island Auction Company; Lot 1466; The Putnam Green/Sycamore Collection; (August 2022). 

 

WB-38

Maker: Dan S. Dunham Co.

Weight: 18 g

[cwnorma]

11 hours ago, Tolzer said:

Provenance: Rock Island Auction Company; Lot 1466; The Putnam Green/Sycamore Collection; (August 2022). 

 

WB-48

Named: inscribed "FROM/E.W.McCOLLUM/AND CREW/TO/MAJOR PEABODY/U.S.A."

Weight: 8 g

 

I believe that this piece was made by Sweeney under contract by Eisenstadt?

@Tolzer

Yes these were made by Eisenstadt for Sweeney.  Also, for your collection notes, this specific badge (with the E.W. McCollum engraving) is a published illustration in Campbell's final edition of his wing book.

 

Chris

[cwnorma]

11 hours ago, Tolzer said:

Provenance: Rock Island Auction Company; Lot 1466; The Putnam Green/Sycamore Collection; (August 2022). 

 

WWI, Bombing Military Aviator Wing

Weight 6 g

@Tolzer,

 

Another annotation for your collector notes, this badge was also once part of the Campbell collection and is a published illustration in his book.

 

Chris

[Brian Dentino]

Some beautiful wings found their way into one of our guys nest.  Thanks for sharing these......more works of art than a military badge to my untrained eye!

[ludwigh1980]

I am far from a wing expert, however I am a bit familiar with Tiffany & Co Sterling Silver. That wing looks cast to me and that mark is a bit obscured for a Tiffany & Co product. Silver pieces from the period that Tiffany & Co produced and marked is well strunk and flawlessly executed. They had very high production standards for everything that they placed their name upon. I defer to WW1 wing experts for an overall opinion. 

[Tolzer]

10 hours ago, ludwigh1980 said:

I am far from a wing expert, however I am a bit familiar with Tiffany & Co Sterling Silver. That wing looks cast to me and that mark is a bit obscured for a Tiffany & Co product. Silver pieces from the period that Tiffany & Co produced and marked is well strunk and flawlessly executed. They had very high production standards for everything that they placed their name upon. I defer to WW1 wing experts for an overall opinion. 

Thanks for your feedback on this wing. Here is a better image of the Tiffany Hallmark.

[Tolzer]

WWI, Bombing Military Aviator Wing

2-1/2"

Weight 4 g

Marked: Sterling

[pfrost]

In regards to your Tiffany half wing, I have one that is its twin. 

 

 

I have handled mine and compared it to a number of other Tiffany full size wings.  Including making measurements.  I am convinced that mine is a good one, and I think yours looks just like mine.  Over the years, I have learned to listen to the critics but also to make my own choice in my collecting targets.  I think you are lucky to have a very rare and very nice Tiffany observer/RMA/JrRMA badge. But my opinion and a couple of dollars will only buy you a medium coffee.... LOL.  But you can see that mine and yours are identical, especially in the hallmarks.

[Tolzer]

40 minutes ago, pfrost said:

In regards to your Tiffany half wing, I have one that is its twin. 

 

 

I have handled mine and compared it to a number of other Tiffany full size wings.  Including making measurements.  I am convinced that mine is a good one, and I think yours looks just like mine.  Over the years, I have learned to listen to the critics but also to make my own choice in my collecting targets.  I think you are lucky to have a very rare and very nice Tiffany observer/RMA/JrRMA badge. But my opinion and a couple of dollars will only buy you a medium coffee.... LOL.  But you can see that mine and yours are identical, especially in the hallmarks.

Your Tiffany wing matches mine! Very interesting and educational post that you made in 2019. I am still going thru these wings and find myself in awe over the detail that these various jewelers put into their workmanship. Truly an era that has gone by. I appreciate all of the Forum members that have taken the time to look at the images, to include those that have responded. More images coming soon.

[pfrost]

My thoughts on these wings are that they were made by Tiffany jobbers (I have always leaned towards Johnson Mfg Co-- because they made a very similar badge).  I have suspicions that our badge didn't make the final "cut" at Tiffany because of the sloppy soldering of the US, so it didn't get the final "m" mark (the mark used by Tiffany from around 1907-1947 under the directorship of John C Moore).  It is my thinking that only finally approved items from the jobbers were given that final proof mark and were then sold by Tiffany.  I think that the lack of the "m" is likely indicative that for what ever reason, Tiffany didn't accept these items, as other Tiffany wings do have the proper halmarks, including the "m".

 

In my mind's scenario, Tiffany had a jobber contract for a certain number of "units" of full and half wings (probably not a large contract because they weren't that many pilots then) and some were eventually were just not accepted--and that is what we have.

 

I have spent a fair amount of time doing research on these Tiffany half wings, and have found very few examples.  In fact, assuming that yours in one of the other examples, I have found, I think I have only seen 2-3 online--maybe a total of 5.  I have never seen one in person, other than mine.  I believe that there are probably less than 100 of these that were ever made. 

 

Finally, while it is pretty easy to find copy/fakes of the full wings, I don't think I have seen more than a half dozen fakes half wings by Tiffany (its hard to know for sure because some wings tend to be passed around).  Of those, most seem to be of the HeWhoShallNotBeNamed variety of "museum quality" reproductions that are easy to identify.  On thing that very few (if any) of the fakes have are the Tiffany-style catch. These only seem to show up on the originals (in general)

[cwnorma]

1 hour ago, Tolzer said:

Your Tiffany wing matches mine! Very interesting and educational post that you made in 2019. I am still going thru these wings and find myself in awe over the detail that these various jewelers put into their workmanship. Truly an era that has gone by. I appreciate all of the Forum members that have taken the time to look at the images, to include those that have responded. More images coming soon.

If it helps, I believe both of you gentlemen have fine, rare, genuine wings.

[pfrost]

Yes... now I can sleep the sleep of the innocent and pure, like a fluffy bunny in his nest of wings... LOL.  Seriously, your opinion does mean a lot.

 

[haw68]

On 9/13/2022 at 7:27 PM, pfrost said:

My thoughts on these wings are that they were made by Tiffany jobbers (I have always leaned towards Johnson Mfg Co-- because they made a very similar badge). 

Patrick - I acquired all remaining dies and company records from Johnson Mfg Co last year and have not been able to find any evidence that they produced items for Tiffany.  If anyone has proof that these companies had a working relationship I would love to know. 

[rustywings]

On 9/13/2022 at 8:43 AM, Tolzer said:

WWI, Bombing Military Aviator Wing

2-1/2"

Weight 4 g

Marked: Sterling

Tolzer, thank you very much for taking the time and effort to share addition images and insight of your freshly acquired WWI era aerial badges. Many many truly wonderful pieces! 

 

I’m especially interested in your nice assortment of Bombing  Military Aviator badges and was wondering if by chance you know who made your smaller 2.5 inch wide BMA example depicted above in Frame #13?

 

Uniquely hand-chased and etched details in the front feathering, the reverse of that badge displays numerous small semicircular indentations possibly made by a jeweler’s Cross-Pein hammer while shaping and strengthening the badge.

 

Any info or thoughts on who produced these hand-made beauties would be much appreciated.

[Tolzer]

Rustywings wish I could provide more info on this 2.5 inch wide BMA example depicted above in Frame #13, I just do not know whom the maker is. Still looking....

 

[bschwartz]

The hand work on the back of this BMA badge reminds me of this wing from Cliff's collection on my site - http://www.ww2wings.com/wings/wwi/us/presleyww1detailed.shtml  Cliff has attributed it to Dunham but I don't know what background he has to make that assertion.  Also not saying that this BMA badge is from the same manufacturer, just saying that this is the wing that came to mind when I read Russ's post above.

[rustywings]

Thank you Tolzer and thank you Bob for your responses.

 

Years ago I purchased a BMA grouping  which included a full-size 3 & 5/8 inch wide wing which has many of the same hand-crafted characteristics as depicted in Tolzer’s smaller 2.5 inches wide BMA wing. The similarities are so close, I suspect the two wings MAY have been made in the same shop... and possibly by the same jeweler?

 

The small hammer indentations on the reverse; the design of the bomb’s fins; the chasing and etching design of the feathering; and the “C” catch all seem to match favorably.  

 

What do you think? All positive and negative responses are welcome...

 

 

[rustywings]

A couple of close-ups...

 

 

[Tolzer]

Similar workmanship for sure! Do you know who made your full-size 3 & 5/8 inch wide wing?