Breast Eagle ?

[Dan-K]

Good or bad ?

[Bob Curuthers]

Good IMHO
But I wonder if it is just the photos, but could the hardware have been re-soldered? It's not clear on my screen

[Jean-Claude]

Hi Dan,

Nice and uncommom one for me. There are tons of these floating around (both in gold & silver) made of cupal (copper layer over aluminum) with plate mounted hardware but this baby doesnt have the plates so the hinge and catch are mounted directly to the eagle which would make it a tombac specimen which is considerably rarer than its cupal bethren. There is also a not often seen cloth mounted (navy blue) version of this bird. I have attached a copy of my set. The top one is a tombac specimen like yours and below is the gold & silver cupal set with plate mounted catch & hinge. Only seen a few tomac gold so far; no idea if this maker also made a silver tombac version.

To Bob's point, your picts arent the best so I cant say for sure if the hardware has been reattached or not. On mine, the gilding appears to have been done after the hardware soldering so it all looks the same gold on the back. The hardware type looks correct on yours and there are "white spots" in areas where no soldering occured so maybe it was just cleaned up with a whithish coloured cleaner at one point (Silvo, Autosol or whatever) but the owner didnt bother to remove the residue. This white crud should come off with a soft toothbrush if its dried residue .

JC