Souval 1st Pattern S-Boat

[lakesidetrader]

I post this badge for discussion I do welcome opinions. As always thanks for your help.
Paul

[BubbaZ]

Hi Paul,
This is the second example of 1st pattern RS S-boot that I have seen so far. The other one popped up last year on Weitze's site:
https://www.weitze.net/detail/38/Sch...l__176738.html
Both pieces share features of wartime RS badges. Yours has a bit smoothed outer and inner outlines. The only question is how come that we have not seen that type before? Any KM award made by RS is quite common compared to other makers.
Cheers,
Hubert

[Patrick W]

I like it

[Giel VW]

I like it a lot, has all what you expect from a wartime Souval!

[Norm F]

I like it a lot, has all what you expect from a wartime Souval!

Hi Guys,

I'd say it almost has all what you'd expect from a wartime Souval. The one odd thing as Hubert mentioned is the heavily hand finished/filed margins causing a smooth outline. You don't see that on any other wartime Souval KM badges. I suppose it could still be an early 1st pattern prototype (along with the Weitze example) that was quickly abandoned with the move to the 2nd pattern design, but you also can't rule out post-war assembly/finishing. Certainly we've seen smooth margins like that on some obviously post-war Souvals. All-in-all it's hard to be definitive on this one in terms of period of production but you could say that for any Souval without provenance, and it certainly does seem to be a genuine Souval product.

Best regards,
---Norm

[lakesidetrader]

Thanks Guys for the Feedback. I always appreciate your willingness to share, it's what makes this such a great place to be.
Here's what else I can tell you it came to me from the a family, not from a collector, show or dealer along with 6 more war-time Souvals. I can only say that perhaps these were pulled out of the factory or from a Salesman's sample board. They all came from the same place.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o></o>

[Leroy]

I also am leaning favorably towards this badge. Although, as pointed out, it has some soft edges, I would think we would have seen many more of these if it was postwar.

[Norm F]

I would think we would have seen many more of these if it was postwar.

But not if it's made from wartime leftovers. I agree that the semi-provenance is encouraging for this batch to have come from the end-of-war period. I was accepting of the Weitze example as well when I first saw it as being a "wartime compatible" construction but I doubt it was ever awarded, Souval immediately transitioning to the 2nd pattern.

Having said that, I'm not aware of filed/smoothed margins on any wartime production Souval product and that continues to bother me, although again you could use the argument that it was a prototype and not a technique intended for mass production.

Here's an example of an obvious post-war Souval product with smoothed edges (stamped L/58).

Best regards,
---Norm

[Leroy]

Norm - Good points, all, but given Souval's tendency to mass produce everything, I'm still leaning to wartime (and quickly abandoned for the 2nd pattern).