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M1926 Droop Wing for enlisted blouse "Made in England"


teufelhunde.ret
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teufelhunde.ret

In December 1926 General Lejune approved the adoption of a new emblem for use on all uniforms of Officer and enlisted. "To be obligatory on July 1927 for winter service and January 1928 for summer service" - for Officer's. These became known as the "droopy wing" series and not all were happy with this emblems character as it has been said many Marines continued to where those previously prescribed, were inclined to make private purchase of others or jeweler made.

 

In 1929 additional uniform reg's were prepared; issued in 1930, this is the first directive for adoption of the "droopy wing" variety. Derivation of the uniform emblems was a trend and there were two more changes in uniform emblems for the future.

 

The photo's depicted here show one of the unique varieties that can be found in this series for enlisted emblems. Typical of English emblems the details are superb on all facets of this example. Not often seen in these emblems is the distinct stempling of the globe, providing excellent relief of the surface and depth to the emblem. As was common for the period the emblem exhibits a good amount of "jewelers rouge" left behind after polishing. Overall this emblem represents a superior example of the quality emblems produced throughout the early 20th century by European makers. I have not seen any of these with a manufactures hallmark (not to say there are none out there waiting to be found think.gif ) all examples with manufactures a hallmark, are those produced in the US. Thus, we can presume these were made by Firman or JR Gaunt. An outside possibly of NS Meyer as the manufacture cannot eliminated until further research surfaces or is done.

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Here is a set of well worn "Made In England" emblems. As you can see, the Marine either polished these almost dead or used a piece of emory cloth to give them the apparent appearance of "old Corps" emblems.

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A single US made collar emblem with typical US designed double breasted eagle. While this Marine left the eagle alone, it's apparent that he used an emory cloth to remove the continents from the globe. I'm sure that during inspection parade, this emblem's globe would reflect a high shine. Wish I had it's mate.

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Another reason this pattern of emblem was unpopular with enlisted Marines during the 1930's.

 

Not only did many Marines believe the eagle resembled a "Gooney Bird" and not worthy of wear by the best fighting men in the world, many of the emblems made during the mid 1930's or at the height of the "Great Depression" were stamped of inferior metals that had many weaknesses. While the emblem shown here is in absolutely minty, almost unworn condition, the anchor flukes simply snapped off somewhere in time. My guess is that while this emblem does not bend, it isn't made of the same quality brass the earlier contract pieces were stamped from. This emblem has an almost pot metal looking appearance.

 

Forgot to mention, but with the leaning or drunken looking "Gooney," I'm certain this emblem is one of the English made emblems that would have had the "Made In England" hallmark on the flukes.

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  • 1 year later...

Here's a pair I probably paid a bit more than value for, but I thought it was a good find. The auction didn't have pics of the rollers but stated they were included. Matched pair of Goonies, the right collar emblem has a more worn eagle and left side of South America, which I found to be consistent with the right side service emblem in my grouping for Byrle C Williby...both worn the same in the places...obviously from the die... Also, the right side emblem's anchor Retaining pins are bent. Both marked with the 'Made in' rather light. Now the rollers, right side emblem has a thin roller that wobbles a bit on the tip of the post but not when screwed down. The left side emblem has a roller seemingly from a cap eagle, my guess is period replacements both. I've found so many goonies with different type rollers, have we concluded which roller types are period issue with these birds? A nice little matched set.

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teufelhunde.ret

Agreed, anytime you can get a matched pair of English (Gaunt?) dress gooneys, its a nice catch. Esp when you see the evidence present of jewelers rouge. Based on my own experiences with handling a number of these mis-matched rollers & emblems, much can be attributed to just period use and these rollers just seem to have a habit of getting "lost". I have found the issue variety from the 20's seem to be the best "fit" as well as period replacement. The original wafer thin rollers that came w/ these are very difficult to acquire and many are stripped, because they were so thin - unlike their 20's counterparts of the issue variety. s/f Darrell

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I'm guessing the thin one here is the wafer one you refer to?

 

jeweler's rouge? you mean the sodder down in there? or the red in the lat/long lines? what is that stuff, anyway?

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teufelhunde.ret

Back in the day - we used jewelers rouge (it came in a very small bar) and cotton cloth whetted to remove scratches from emblems, medals, buckles and such, then finished w/ brasso. Guess I'm giving away my age here... my guess is Bobgee has a bar sitting on his desk! :D

 

PS, will get some roller pic's posted later...

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