Observer clasp in bronze

[JackHun]

Any ideas on the maker?

Thanks in advance!

Jack

[JackHun]

More Images, can make further photos if helpful.

[Thomas Durante]

Hi Jack,

Nice original. As for maker, Juncker is my vote but hard to be 100% certain.

Tom

[Sebastien T]

Nice one Jack, Juncker for me as well

Seb

[Tim O.]

Hi Jack

We still have a lot to learn about Clasps but I don't think this is a Juncker example unless Juncker had two dies. All the maker-marked Juncker clasps I have seen (whether Bomber or Recce) have two laurel berries side by side at the 12 o'clock position, above a single berry. I believe this unmarked badge below from my collection is from Juncker and shows the berries. Your example seems to have a single berry above a single berry at 12 o'clock.

Juncker often cut out the holes in the 'wing' roots to make triangles but this was not always the case and is not a definitive feature but I think the berries are.

I am sure there will be more and better-informed opinions than mine.

I think we need to do more work to establish the maker of your clasp.

[fdodge]

Beautiful clasp. Tim makes a very good point about the berries.
I see an incomplete circle on the wreath just left of the 12 o'clock berries. That's a new one for me.

Frank

[Christopher G.]

Juncker or not its still a great clasp. Very nice addition

Regards,
Chris G.

[Tom Yanacek]

We still have a lot to learn about Clasps but I don't think this is a Juncker example unless Juncker had two dies. All the maker-marked Juncker clasps I have seen (whether Bomber or Recce) have two laurel berries side by side at the 12 o'clock position, above a single berry. I think we need to do more work to establish the maker of your clasp.

A very good point made by Tim and I have wondered about this myself. It is certainly quite possible that Juncker used more than one die for production of these clasps. But it is also possible that the single berry examples were the work of an entirely different manufacturer.

Posted below is a Juncker marked clasp, showing the two laurel berries at the top which, as Tim says, seems to be a characteristic of all the marked Junckers.

[Tom Yanacek]

Here is an unmarked example that also has two berries at the top:

[Tom Yanacek]

And this unmarked example has only a single berry at the top and appears to be of the same design as the one posted by Jack at the start of this thread.

[Sebastien T]

Good point Tim but like Tom I also think there is more than one die.

Seb

[JackHun]

Great, what an exciting and interesting discussion!

Jack

[peterm]

Hi!

Marked silver one with 2 berries...

Kind regards, Peter

[Thomas Durante]

Hi guys,

Yes, I think it is very possible (probable) that Juncker used more than 1 die with their flight clasps. We know they used several obverse dies with almost all their other badges, so why not flight clasps too? Juncker used 3 different eagles and 4 different wreath designs on their Pilot badges; 3 different dies with their LW Flaks, 2 different eagles and wreaths for their LW Observers, 4 different dies with their Heer CCCs, etc.

I don't think all these switches were out of necessity, but rather choice.

Tom

[Tim O.]

Hi guys,

Yes, I think it is very possible (probable) that Juncker used more than 1 die with their flight clasps. We know they used several obverse dies with almost all their other badges, so why not flight clasps too? Juncker used 3 different eagles and 4 different wreath designs on their Pilot badges; 3 different dies with their LW Flaks, 2 different eagles and wreaths for their LW Observers, 4 different dies with their Heer CCCs, etc.

I don't think all these switches were out of necessity, but rather choice.

Tom

Hi Tom

Do you have thoughts on the sequence for the different dies? With other badges I think the assumption is they were sequential and not concurrent, e.g. J1, J2, J3, J4.

This is interesting stuff!