GAB mold / matrix

[Giel VW]

Hi guys

Yesterday evening I made a visit to a Belgian collector nearby who was selling some parts of his collection. I couldn't leave this one behind when I saw it. An extremely heavy GAB mold!! The piece is marked with "CAL 27384" which I suppose stand for caliber? And also dated with 11.11.42 which I suppose is the date. The obverse of the die with the GAB etch is marked "M N". No further marking are to be found.

I tried to make a sample with some old playdoh I still had. Altough it was already quite hard I managed to get one out.

So the one million dollar question now is, what design are we looking at? Give it a guess!

Anyhow, I hope you guys like it

Giel

[Giel VW]

2

[Giel VW]

3 playdoh result, not really satisfying

[Giel VW]

So no real result with the playdoh, but then I just took a negative and turned it around, which made the result really nice! I would have no idea what I'm looking at now. Notice that the die is lightly damaged on the swas.

Head reminds me a lot of S&L, with some flatback characteristics...

[Thomas Durante]

Hi Giel,

Very interesting find. The inverted picture is a great idea, lots of detail to see.

I don't immediately recognize the design, but the heavy eyebrow seems pretty unique. Reminds me of S&L as you say. Also reminds me alot of this GAB. The mouth doesn't seem to match exactly, but everything else is very close. I only have this crappy pic, and its not a type that was featured in Frank's GAB book.

Tom

[Giel VW]

Hi guys... euh Tom

I thought this thread was going to catch some more attention

I agree with the eyebrow being so typical for S&L. The problem with the GAB you show clearly are the shoulderblades of the eagle. The example on the matrix clearly has much thicker examples!

[Antonio Scapini]

Giel, IMO it could be for an Assmann GAB...

[andrea]

Seems to me more a wiedmann , with the eagle shoulders more fat and the eagle Beck " rounded" .......
Andrea

[Chet Sowersby]

I've seen these things for sale in the past and IMO they all pretty much look the same design wise. There is never anything deffinative to point to a specific producer. Why is that? Not saying this one is good or bad but it takes a leap of faith to collect this sort of thing.

Chet

[Graeme]

Hi Giel

That is a real solid chunk of metal for sure.

I can't place that design exactly but you are right to point out the broad shoulders as distinctive. The bayonet groove is also rather short compared to most and worth keeping in mind when comparing. Certain areas of the design, I can see in the makers the other guys have highlighted, and for me the Mayer design has close features to this, but nothing really close to an exact match.

Maybe this never made production, or was a prototype, or was damaged during manufacture.. That area near the swas cutout, would show up as a flaw similar to those seen on F&B badges, and for that reason may have been rejected.. All speculation on my part I might add, and may be very far from reality..

Great to see though, and come on be truthful, I bet you have some fresh play-doh in your bedroom

cheers
Graeme

[Don D.]

CAL is probably the company that cut the die.