Early stamped GAB by RK

[Sniper 1987]

I was fortunate to attend the first two days of SOS and pick up this early brass stamped GAB from a dealer with a good reputation in the collecting community. Two trusted WAF members at SOS examined it in hand with positive comments. I wanted to submit it to the wider WAF community for further discussion. Thanks.

Matt

[Sniper 1987]

Closer photos of obverse.

[Sniper 1987]

Reverse hardware photos, including "question mark" catch with proper catch plate.

[Sniper 1987]

One final reverse photo.

[Sniper 1987]

My comment regarding the catch is incorrect - it is a "C" shaped round wire catch mounted to a catch plate. My error. Thanks.

Matt

[Dave Wyatt]

Great looking GAB! No problems with this one. Textbook.

[Wim Vangossum]

A really nice GAB. Congrat's with this one.


Regards, Wim

[Jelle M.]

A beauty for sure

[Nordmark]

That´s a gorgeous example.


Could this be a heavily plated zinc badge?

[Sniper 1987]

Thanks for the comments. Regarding the question of whether this badge may be made of zinc:

1) My bad photography (cloudy day) does not show the golden yellow brass that is apparent on the worn high points of the obverse. RK did make a second hollow version GAB of zinc, but I am not aware of RK plating the zinc base metal with brass prior to the final application of the frosted silver coating.

2) This badge has a sharp, mirror-image reverse, which is an indicator of high quality base metals such as brass. My understanding is that RK's hollow zinc GAB lost a bit of detail on the reverse, especially is the hollows of the leaves.

3) Information available in the GAB book by Heukemes indicates that RK's early brass GAB utilized a catch plate (like this one has), and the later zinc version had a catch applied directly to the zinc. Not sure if that is always 100% though.

I don't have a digital scale at home, but I will weigh this one at work tomorrow. However, I am still confident that it is the earliest RK GAB made of brass.

[Nordmark]

Hi Matt,



I was just wondering about the marked spot. I was not sure if this is some kind of dirt on the swaz, or if some of the plating peeled off, showing the base material (which then looks like zinc).


Regards,


Daniel

[Sniper 1987]

I need to examine that spot under additional magnification (my loupe is just a 30x). However, the surface of this badge, obverse and reverse, has a good bit of dark speckling, which is patina common to frosted badges. Some areas are covered more than others.

Also, I re-checked my Heukemes GAB reference book (published in 2005). The use of measurements and weight likely will not differentiate a brass versus zinc RK GAB - the weights of the two are only 0.10 gram difference.

Possibly, further examples of stamped/hollow RK GAB's have been examined by WAF members since the 2005 time frame. My previous comments regarding the attributes of early brass versus zinc RK GAB's were primarily derived from the Heukemes GAB book. Maybe there was a transitional period when RK produced a zinc GAB with a brass coating and catch plate.

I am certainly open to such a possibility and welcome further comments.

Matt

[Thomas Durante]

Hi Matt,

Very nice example you found, and I agree with Daniel that it looks to be a heavily tombak-plated zinc badge.

Tom

[Sniper 1987]

Lesson learned - don't rely on an 8 year old reference book as the gospel on base metal, component, and finish combinations. On the positive side, at least I picked up an original badge this time around.

I still like the look of this badge, so it will remain in my collection. However, the search continues for an all brass GAB.

Matt

[Nordmark]

Lesson learned - don't rely on an 8 year old reference book as the gospel on base metal, component, and finish combinations. On the positive side, at least I picked up an original badge this time around.

I still like the look of this badge, so it will remain in my collection. However, the search continues for an all brass GAB.

Matt

Hi Matt,


I would not see this as "lesson learned", this is not an easy badge to find, no matter if zinc or tombak. Not to mention in this superb condition. This is a keeper, who cares about zinc or tombak, if a badge looks like this. I don´t.


Regards,


Daniel