Rare Petz & Lorenz Kriegsabzeichen für Minesuch - Sicherungsverbände.

[Adrian]

Here's a long overdue new badge for my Minesweeper collection.

It's been attributed to the firm of Petz & Lorenz who went out of business in 1941 - the Minesweeper badge was only instituted in August 1940 so these were a very short run of badges and consequently not easy to find. These are always unmarked.

Made in tombac, Petz & Lorenz gave their badges a silver coating over the base metal and then applied the finish onto that. You can see the silver undercoat on this example where the finish has worn off.

You will also not this particular badge has been heavily vaulted and the marks of the vice are clearly visible on the reverse and on the wings of the eagle.

The hinge is a simple wrap around type but the corners where it is affixed to the back of the badge have been clipped down, not sure why but this appears to be a feature for this maker. The pin is round wire and clipped blunt on the end. The catch is a simple cut out from flat material.

Petz & Lorenz usually hand finished their products so it is possible to find minor variations in the outline of their badges.

Many thanks to Jim from Militaria Plaza for the deal on this one. I only had time to take a few quick shots today but I will update them images with better ones when I get the chance.

[Pryo]

Beautiful, wish i could afford one of the nicer ones

[TrondK]

Nice piece

[Kevin Grootaers]

Very nice piece.

[big ned]

Indeed a rare piece Adrian, you did well to secure it! The P&L made Mine Sweeper badge was for many years thought to have been the product of Otto Schickle/B.H.Mayer until a P&L product catalogue was recently uncovered that showed small differences in the 'cut out' of the explosion on the badge compared to known Schickle/Mayer ones. This lead to a difference in the weight between the two badges being noticed. The Schickle/Mayer type were +/-30g whilst the newly found P&L type was lighter at around +/-23g. It was also noted that a silver base coating was applied to the badge under the gold gilding of the P&L badge that was not found on the other Schickle/Mayer type. Below are a Schickle badge on the left, and a P&L one on the right. Note the slight differences in the design/finish taking special note of the differences in the explosion spray pattern at the 12-1 o'clock position as the most obvious difference.



The 'angle filed' hinge is interesting as it's one of three variants found on early tombak Schickle/Mayer Panzerkampf Abzeichen's, I showed one last week, and the catch is I think, identical to some that were used on those firms EK1's at sometime. This probably is the reason that the P&L made badge was for many years thought to be made by one or both of these companies until the newly discovered catalogue proved otherwise.



Above for comparison, the same style 'angle filed' hinge variant found on some of the early Schcikle/Mayer design Panzerkampf Abzeichen's.

Regards, Ned.

[Eric Zentner]

Very nice it looks great.

Eric

[rbminis]

A very nice addition to your collection Adrian!
Does the front exhibit any cracking due to the vaulting?
Congrats on adding this one!
Ralph.
P.S. About time we saw something new added to your collection!

[Eric Zentner]

I see no cracks frome these pics and I love it the more I look at it.
Great hard to find item my friend.
Congrats

[harryamb2]

all nice badges.love the kriegsmarine ones.

[Kradmelder]

Congrats Adrian.A very nice looking badge!