An interesting Amcraft conundrum

[rathbonemuseum.com]

Hey fellow wingnuts. Came across this piece and really am fascinated by it. A very humble little sales card from Amcraft (American Metal Crafts Co.) which clearly was specifically for the armed forces exclusively through the Army Exchange Service ("post exchange"). Only $1.25! Also have never seen the tagline on the back before. But more interesting is the wing that is attached. I have no reason to speculate that was not the original wing on the card. But it is a basic graduation pattern i have never associated with Amcraft. If true, opens up a whole 'nother door on this pattern and who made them. I note that the card indicates "sterling silver" but I can not make out the metal mark on the back (terrible picture, though). Have you seen this before?

[pconrad02]

I saw this auction too, personally I don't think the wing is original to the card - you can see a slight rust line from what I believe was the pin on the Amcraft wing. Plus the wing isn't marked sterling as noted.  Just my opinion!

[The Rooster]

Aren't those modern clutches?

And its got the infamous unknown black laquer

substance all over the back. Not WW2?

Ive read that some amcraft were faked.

Re-struck. ?

[5thwingmarty]

I'm with pconrad02, this is just a random wing put on an Amcraft card.  

[rathbonemuseum.com]

Love seeing you guys stay sharp!

[B-17Guy]

I saw the auction as well and was intrigued by it, as you were Tod.

No explain either, but above comments seem plausible.

I guess the jury is out on this one.

John

[pfrost]

I also suspect a switch. Its also possible that the Army exchange got a batch of wings and they simply pinned them onto a batch of cards that they had laying around when they sold them.  No way to tell for sure. It may have just been the way of official government contracting that Exchange got a batch of  wings in a big box and then had to put them out for sale?  Or someone just switched them later after the fact. Or AMCRAFT had another pattern of wings that they made at some point --we know that they had more than one pattern.

 

But here is another AMCRAFT card with an AMCRAFT pattern wing. I've seen these infrequently over the years.

 

[pfrost]

Here is another example found on the web. In this one, the card is like the one shown in the OP with an AMCRAFT liaison wing attached.

 

Notice that there are a couple of big holes punched into the card to make room for the hinge and catch.  I would expect a similar situation to have happened with the OP card if the original item was a traded out pin back wing (the little bit of rust or stain suggests that).  But I cannot see if the hole is small or large?

 

 

[pfrost]

Here is another card.  Again if you look at the size of the holes, they are larger than one would expect if you just used a clutch back wings.

 

But AMCRAFT wings were made in clutch back... so who knows.

 

 

[rathbonemuseum.com]

Thanks Patrick for finding the additional images. Yes, seems a switch was made.