Evolution of St&L's IAB

[Brig]

Gentlemen, having gotten two variants of IAB's in the past two days, and having two others on hand, and after some observations by Nigel here... http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=798969 , I thought I would be interesting to do a side by side by side by side comparison of 4 variants of S&L's IAB over the years. What I feel are, from top to bottom and left to right, Very Early, Early, Early-Mid, and Late.

First, an image of the fronts, which, when laid out and viewed from afar, all seem to be very nice, with the top two having a duller, less shiny finish than the bottom/later two

[Brig]

And then the rears.

I noticed that the edges of the leaves changed from very early to the three later badge, with one almost appearing to be a cut line on the very early. These differences are circled in black.

Also, the characteristic taper on the inner edge of the wreath is absent on the very early, and gradually increases as the badges get later. Seen just at the tips of the leaves on the early, and then much more so on the later two. This is a trait I've taken to look for on original mid-late badges on auction, as it seems many of the fakes miss this taper and are more flat. The differences are circled in green

[Brig]

The acorns on the top, as well as the leaf on the left. It appears as if there was a die flaw with the very early strike, as can be seen on the lower leaf to the left and the right side of the acorn, which was corrected for the next period. As Nigel suggested, perhaps a second mold was used in the mid era, as the bottom two (mid and late) have an acorn that appears to be snipped and alarmingly less detailed than earlier strikes

[Brig]

Next is the grips of the bayonets. We can see that on the mid-late examples, the rivets are much less detailed and much more shallow. We can also see beside it how much the detail on the acorn cap suffered over the years

[Brig]

Here we can see not only the decreasing amount of detail in the acorn caps, but the gradual decrease in texture to the oak leaves themselves

[Brig]

As we saw with the improvement of the top acorn above, it does seem that S&L made a couple of efforts to improve the details, though ultimately sacrificing others in the process. Here we can see the details on the slings changed, whereas in earlier versions they seemed to simply have the borders impressed into the sling, it appears with later models they actually raised them. However, we can see that the details to the stock suffered in the process

[Brig]

Here's perhaps the most blatant flaw in the new die, the leaf near the top right. We can see on the older strikes that it is almost centered with the vein of the leaf it overlaps, whereas in later models it seemed to shift right, leaving a flaw on the inside of the wreath and no longer being even remotely centered on the vein

[Brig]

And lastly, the blocks and hinges. We all know the pins and hinges changed, but so did the pins. Whereas on earlier versions, they tend to be flush and lacking a head, on later ones, one side indeed had a small head, and wasn't always placed in the same direction

I'm sure there are other differences with other eras...transitional, more modern, etc...but these are the 4 I have on hand

[Nigel N]

Excellent work Brig!
This shows why having the same type of badge / medal from different periods can tell us so much!!
S&L have been making some of these pieces for over 50 years, and all have changed over that length of time!!
Sometimes its just die wear, sometimes the development or tidying up of die flaws, and sometimes the old die was worn out, and an entirely new one was made!!
Its also interesting to study the changes in the hand finishing and the silver finish applied to the badge!!
It would be nice to see a current production piece to compare!!!
-Nigel

[Skyhawk]

Super, and useful comparison Brig!

Quite interesting to see the progression over such a long period, and from the veteran era into the collector era. I think your examples clearly illustrate why the early/very early S&L badges of all types, are very sought after. I really like the very early IAB!

Great macro photos photos too!

Best,

Jeff

[Tom B]

Thanks for the comparison. Tom