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Wire Looped EGAs on 1892 Shoulder Knots


Alec
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I have a set of 1892 EM shoulder knots from a grouping to a Marine who served in 1905-1907 time period. I have his overcoat-cape, khaki tunic, and blues all with SGT stripes.

 

Note the doubled wire attachment by means of a looped wire. I know discussion have been that underwire should not be shiny due to age, but this EGA has not been removed since it was put there. I was able to peer under the other knot and the EGA has the same type of looped wire eventhough these are from different dies.

 

I checked with another collecter who has several sets and he said his appear to be looped as well. Anyone else able to look under their EGAs and confirm this possibly knew discovery.

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...I know discussion have been that underwire should not be shiny due to age, but this EGA has not been removed since it was put there.

 

I don't know anything about the loops, but this pair of 1892 officer's shoulder knot EGA's I found a couple years ago had what seem to be shiny wires:

 

ega1900back.jpg

ega1900backbig.jpg

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usmcaviator

Alec,

The wire I would expect to be new looking if it has spent the majority of its life tucked into the pad. The shiny look has never bothered me.

 

I do believe that you are probably the first person to pull the EGAs off of an unmessed with set of banjo boards and stumble across what many others had missed. Upon closer scrutiny, all three of my original sets of enlisted boards have both right and left facing EGAs and all 6 of those EGAs have dual prong configuration (side by side wire on each side of the EGA) as do your pictured EGAs. As I told you in our e-mail earlier, they are on very tight, and it would be extremely difficult to get them off, but I can see that each side definately has a dual wire configuration that splays out within the pad of the epaulette. I was surprised to see this, as I always thought that the versions on the epaulettes would look like the commonly encountered left facing EGA that has already had much discussion in this thread: http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...amp;hl=1892+ega .

 

In that thread, check out post #12 with a dual wire configuration shown and (mis) identified as a restrike.

 

I dont think I have ever seen a matched set of enlisted epaulette insignia off of the epaulette, or a pair of EGAless epaulettes, for that matter (I think the sturdy method of attachment attests to that fact). So, does this mean that single prong construction EGAs (one prong on each side) are bad? No. All this means so far is that 4 original sets of epaulettes have dual prong. There very well may be epaulette sets out there with single prong construction that are 100% right. My three sets are Horstmann marked to the back side. Maybe construction differed over the years the banjo boards were manufactured or there may even be different manufacturers that used different stocks of EGAs?

 

However, if side by side dual prongs were only meant for the epaulettes, your new discovery only adds to the still foggy reason why so many left facing single prong EGAs were made.

 

Some interesting discussion points should generate from this.

 

Mike

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teufelhunde.ret

Alec, hello and welcome aboard. Look forward to your posts, especially ones like this. I agree with the conclusions Mike has drawn from the observations made of the double wire attachments. Its quite apparent from your comments this are, as found, double wired to these boards. Quite an interesting discovery and this leads to the obvious question; was this a common practice throughout the period of manufacture, was it realized after production the single wire did not hold up to wear? As in the case of Mike's the emblems, being affixed so tight, I cannot tell upon examination of my own boards what wire arrangements exist. In reference to the other board thread, I will maintain the opinion that there were re-strikes, well after or well beyond, the period of use. A look at ebay on any give day, is a clue as to how prolific these re-strikes are and good reason to proceed with caution.

 

If you would for us, post a full front and rear photo of these emblems. Thank you for providing us with this wonderful discover and information.

s/f Darrell

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Here are some more shots of those EGAs. I agree with Mike that this might mean a lot fo the single pring EGAs might be the repros then that were made to go with the banjo boards from surplus from the Corps. The Special Full Dress Unifrom faded very quickly from reular service and ended up being used for Embassy duty- Legation Guard and Legation band units so the banjo boards may have becaome surplus before the unfirom was even phased out. Still unclear at the moment though. Wish Bannerman purchasing records still existed.

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Wish Bannerman purchasing records still existed.

 

I've got a 1925 Bannerman's catalog and one from the latest 40's and the 1925 is the only one that had an EGA and it was something they had made:

 

Bannerman25ega.jpg

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The Special Full Dress Uniform faded very quickly from regular service and ended up being used for Embassy duty- Legation Guard and Legation band

 

Alec: Hi do you have any photo evidence of the special full dress being worn by EM at a Legation or with the legation band?.....I've got several shots of it being worn by the officers in Peking but none by EM....would really like to see one. Since the Peking Detachment had the only formal band at a US legation I would guess it was only worn for a few years there if at all. All the pictures I have prior to 1916 show them wearing service blues....but I guess at a formal concert it might be possible they wore this uniform. Hoping a picture exists of the band wearing that uniform. Thanks! Dirk

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