Rare WWII vintage NEA airline wings using rarer WWI vintage gold wing

[pfrost]

This is a recent find. A beautiful Northeast Airlines (NEA) 1st issue pilot wing likely dating from 1940-1945 or so.

 

From wikipedia "Northeast Airlines was an American airline based in Boston, Massachusetts. It began as Boston-Maine Airways, which was founded as a Pan Am contract carrier on July 20, 1931 by the Boston and Maine Railroad and Maine Central Railroad offering service from Boston to Bangor via Portland. It flew only abortively until August 11, 1933 when it began contract service for National Airways, an agreement which lasted four years. It adopted the name Northeast Airlines on November 19, 1940. During World War II, Northeast pioneered regular transatlantic service for the military under contract from the U.S. Army Air Force."

 

I suspect that this was a type of wing that would have been worn by pilots of NEA who were contracted by the ATC to fly military personnel. Other contracted airlines were Pan Am and TWA.

 

What is interesting about this wing is that it clearly uses the Robbins style WWI wing, just gold plated and with the enamel NEA device. The pin is also more of a 1940's style than the WWI vintage wing.

 

As a collector, this wing kind of hits all sorts of interesting niches. It is a WWII vintage civilian airline wing (a rare collectable all by itself), with a strong connection to the ATC (another exciting area of collecting). The wing is clearly from the same dies as a WWI pilot wing in a pattern that also has strong collector interest. It also shows that some 20 years after WWI, the company still had the dies for the wings as was willing to crank out new merchandise for new markets.

[pfrost]

The back of the wings.

 

For comparison, a picture of the recent Campbell auction of a similar WWI wing. I would argue that they are very similar, except for the pin assembly.

 

I hope it is ok to use the Campbell picture for comparison purposes only?

 

Patrick

[John Cooper]

Patrick,

 

I think it would be interesting for you to compare and contrast the two wings in hand... Although the photos are not the same scale they appear to be the same size and from the same maker..?

 

John

[AustinO]

Very interesting comparison! I'm sort of surprised that the shield is still visible beneath the logo, definitely a rarity! The DC-3 depicted is a good way to date it...

[pfrost]

Finally got some more time to bring this thread to some conclusion.

 

I my research, I have found at least 3 or 4 different variations of this pattern wing from WWI. The pattern shown here are hand made "jeweler pieces" and show a great deal of workmanship and detail. They are made up of multiple levels of thin metal sheets, all carefully hand cut and chased.

 

Then, I have seen at least 2 variations of the thicker and heaver die struck wings like the ones sold at the Campbell auction. One variation has no cut out between the wings and the shield, the other is solid. Sometimes they have the 3 hallmarks that Robbins Co used during WWI. I believe at least a 4th variation is also shown in the second Silver wings book, but it is hard to know for sure. It also seems that during WWI, these wings were to be found with either pin back or screw back attachments.

 

These wings have been typically attributed to the Robbins Co as well as JR Gaunt. I am not so sure about the JR Gaunt connection, and suspect that perhaps the hallmarks used by Robbins may have been confused with the hallmarks sometimes found on Gaunt wings (but that is only conjecture on my part)

 

Of the ones in my collection, the top one came from Lt. Francis "Huckleberry" Hughs who flew with the 99th Aerosquadron in WWI. Happily, I have almost impeccable provenance on this particular wing.

[pfrost]

Here are the backs. You can see the detail in the way the WWI wings are made,with the wings and shield being attached to each other separately, as opposed to being one integral piece. Also, you can see that Lt. Hughes wing has some vintage and rather crude repair to the back.

 

The other wing has been converted from a screw back to a pin back sometime in its past as well. You can't really see it in the scan, but careful study in hand demonstrates this very clearly.

 

In my opinion, the two WWI wings were clearly made in the same jeweler or even by the same craftsman.

[John Cooper]

Patrick,

 

Form the photos it really looks like the one that sold in the Campbell auction and the one you posted are a very close match with some minor differences not including the fittings. Same maker you think :think:

 

John