uboot badge I WK

[fsee]

Yes. The other thing I forgot to mention is that Schott badges have striations on the reverse as seen on both your gilt badge and the one I posted. fsee's badge lacks these striations.

Under some magnification, my badge does has striations going diagonally all over the back. The photo is overexposed and has glare from the flash. Mine does not have the bubbles or pits often seen on cast copies.
On badges that everyone agrees on as period ones, are they all die stamped with some filing to clean them up? Or, did this vary from maker to maker?

[Brian L.]

Under some magnification, my badge does has striations going diagonally all over the back. The photo is overexposed and has glare from the flash. Mine does not have the bubbles or pits often seen on cast copies.
On badges that everyone agrees on as period ones, are they all die stamped with some filing to clean them up? Or, did this vary from maker to maker?

All are die-struck and then finished.

IMO your badge is dies-struck as well, but from a newly cut die. These days, die-strike fakes are common.

[Ron P]

This last one posted is a reproduction as well.

Gary B

True.

[Norm F]

Walter Schott is not a manufacturer of the U-Boat badge, he was the designer. Fec is, I recall, Latin for creation/design.

As painful as it is to revive this thread (which appropriately belaboured the fact that the badge in the opening post is an obvious cast reproduction), I nevertheless must correct the oft-repeated erroneous thought that Schott didn't manufacture the 1918-19 badges. In recent years, it was established that Schott did indeed manufacture the badges bearing his name.

To quote Gordon Williamson from early 2012:

"Many Kriegsmarine collectors will be familiar with the WW1 U-Boat badge with the "WALTER SCHOTT / fec. " stamp.
It has been stated and widely believed by many (including myself), for many many years now that Walter Schott was the designer of the badge but not the actual manufacturer. I first saw reference to the maker being Juncker on a German website many years ago and took that to be true.

Of course the fact that on WW2 badges the "FEC" (for the Latin Fecit or "Created By" does purely refer to the designer with a separate firm doing the actual manufacture (i.e. Peekhaus doing the designing and Schwerin doing the manufacturing) suggested that the same would have happened with the WW1 badge.

I recently discovered some new information however, which shows that Walter Schott did of course design the WW1 U-Boat Badge, but almost certainly DID also manufacture them.

I have seen a letter from the Reichswehrministerium stating that badges had to be obtained directly from Professor Schott at his business address in Berlin. !! There is obviously still the possibility that Schott having designed the badge then sub-contracted its manufacture to someone else but on the face of it it does look like current thinking was wrong and Schott both designed and manufactured the badge.

Another new fact that I have become aware of is that when newly made, the Schott U-Boat Badges had the wreath lacquered green! I have indeed seen examples of the badge with traces of green but assumed this to be verdigris on the brass (a common misperception which probably resulted in remaining original lacquer being cleaned off by some badge owners !)

It should be noted that the Errinerungsabzeichen für Marineluftschiffer badge also made by Schott featured a green lacquered wreath."

Best regards,
---Norm

[Gary B]

Norm,

Thanks for the additional information. I was not aware of Gordon's discovery about the possible manufacturing of the badges by Schott, although I was aware of the green lacquer on the wreaths.

As always, your posts/threads are informative, non-biased and factual. I always learn something from them and appreciate your comments.

Gary B