GWL Gold

[Brian S]

I was finally able to get the Pilot and Observer in the room at the same time to photograph. It's my theory GWL made these for a very specific purpose with a Gold Eagle. Perhaps the dark dress uniform as worn by Marseille?

[Brian S]

Here's a shot of the two entire badges. Notice the frosting on the Observer is stone cold mint. The eagle could not have been "cleaned" and left the frosting so intact. Also notice the gold has left some of the swastika.

[Brian S]

I can only speculate that perhaps it was to bring out the badge on a dress uniform like this one worn by Marseille.

Any other "gold" GWL photos would be appreciated, or theories.

[Jean-Claude]

Beautiful GWL set Brian. Same set (and in similar condition) as I had a long time ago that I had to part with. No pictures in the early 70's but I remember well that my GWLs birds were brown with yellowish overtones rther than oxidized silver and I always beleived this was due to a coat of protective lacquer that had toned with time.

However I do remember reading in an old WAF thread in archives someone mentioning that some J1s were produced without the oxidized silver finish on the eagle for "special dress badges". Then again IMME (OR JMME) more often than not have light finished eagles (Pilots & ROAG for example) and in their case its more a matter of finishes and techniques used than a deliberate effort to produce "dress badges" IMO so who knows for sure

Beautiful badges!

JC

[Sebastien T]

Dont know if GWL made two tones for that purpose but I have seen many Greenish eagles like yours. Here's my stone mint one and the white wreat would surely made a nice contrast on a dark uniform.

[Brian S]

Thank you Sebastian. I too could post one as frosty as yours. Silver wreath and blackened eagle. Green, hardly... It's a gold color.

Point here is the eagles were never blackened.

[Sebastien T]

Here's another Brian one from my good friend Martin. White silver wreath with a goldish/greenish eagle. Mine have indeed a black finish but he turn a little towards these color also. You cant really see it cause of the scan. Your observer eagle look to have some remnant of black finish on it as well as the PB swas, could it be these badges lost their original finish true time and just show the base metal color.... just an opinion here they are beauties in green or gold...

[Jos L C]

I've a luftwaffe pith helmet eagle which looks gold, not the lottery, because they didn't exist in being for general, although some will try to pass them on like that.
Toning, no more like that, it's a strange thing, like army decals looking like navy gold decals, think many people have bought the the "toned " army looking helmet, double priced, represented as being navy..
There's a lot of toning going on after all those years, with less proof that these items were really gold instead of silver.
It's just a fact.
I've a great LW helmet with the most yellow/gold eagle you can imagine..
I'm very happy with that one, but it's just a Q maker helmet with eagles which turned yellow after all those years.
So, nothing special, but very special instead ..

Jos.

[Brian S]

Based on the one Sebastien posted and your comments Jos, I think it likely toning. Looking at the swas on the obs I'd then assume for some strange reason GWL did put a protective coating on the badge. Can't imagine why... But some daggers had a lacquor so... Or a gold finish that can turn greenish based on sunlight, other? 75 year old badges. The obs was cased. Be curious what else comes over the next few days.

[e-maus]

Some badge were produced without the oxidized silver finish on the eagle for "special dress badges". / for example, my Imme Juncker parts P / B /.
Jacek

[e-maus]

Some badge were produced without the oxidized silver finish on the eagle for "special dress badges". / for example, my Imme Juncker parts P / B /.
Jacek




sorry for the double post

[Rich G]

Some badge were produced without the oxidized silver finish on the eagle for "special dress badges". / for example, my Imme Juncker parts P / B /.
Jacek

Really? Is that documented somewhere or is that just your opinion?

Rich

[Thomas Durante]

Really? Is that documented somewhere or is that just your opinion?

Rich

Hi guys,

Like Rich, I too would like to see some documentation to support this notion. Speculating is good and this could very well be true, but I would want to see some period reference supporting this before I would believe it (such as a GWL advertisement offering old-silver finish versus a new-silver finish, or gold finish etc.)

The regulations for the PB are quite clear, the eagle should have artificially oxidized (darkened) eagles. In the case of IMME, they apparently did not follow the regulation and chose to create their eagles without the blackening. They are very consistent with that. Its a different story with GWL because there are cases where you have black eagles and then other cases where you have silver/gold-colored eagles. That inconsistency would make me look very hard at the silver/gold colored eagles to be sure they weren't cleaned and stripped of their black finish. I have seen plenty of GWL eagles that appear to be goldish or even brown, but I tend to think that is the fading of the lacqure that they used on the eagle that tones down to these different colors over the years in my opinion.

Tom

[Larry Lipps]

Have to say that I pretty much agree with Tom on this. I managed to get a GWL observers badge from a local vet that I somewhat knew the history on. The badge had spent 50 years in a curio cabinet where it received about 5 hours of direct sunshine each day. The inside of the case was bleached almost white. I believe the storage conditions had more to do with changing the color than anything done at the factory.

[Brian S]

Hi guys,

Like Rich, I too would like to see some documentation to support this notion. Speculating is good and this could very well be true, but I would want to see some period reference supporting this before I would believe it (such as a GWL advertisement offering old-silver finish versus a new-silver finish, or gold finish etc.)

The regulations for the PB are quite clear, the eagle should have artificially oxidized (darkened) eagles. In the case of IMME, they apparently did not follow the regulation and chose to create their eagles without the blackening. They are very consistent with that. Its a different story with GWL because there are cases where you have black eagles and then other cases where you have silver/gold-colored eagles. That inconsistency would make me look very hard at the silver/gold colored eagles to be sure they weren't cleaned and stripped of their black finish. I have seen plenty of GWL eagles that appear to be goldish or even brown, but I tend to think that is the fading of the lacqure that they used on the eagle that tones down to these different colors over the years in my opinion.

Tom

Tom, seriously, does that observer badge appear to you to be stripped in any fashion? Frosting 95% and a "stripped" eagle. The pilot frosting is good and not stripped either.