RAF Souvenir Cyprus 59-61 plaque.

[bananamafia]

thought i would show this recent pick up.
Little souvenir RAF plaque

[Adrian Stevenson]

Nicely done.

Interesting that they used a King's Crown style Crown but in the Queen's Crown era.

Cheers, Ade.

[Composite]

..it reminds me of a conversation I had once about a Civil Defence item bearing the "wrong" crown...and the guy said "a crown's a crown right?"

That said I don't think anyone will be screaming "FAKE!" at this one......if anything the only person who'd be screaming would be the wood carver who clearly spent a LLLLLOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG time producing this one.....can you imagine how he felt when/if someone pointed out an error as it was unvieled.....

Mr Mafia....always with the wood?? :-)

....nice piece tho......

[Jerry B]

Perhaps modelled from an old badge as template.

Nice item.

[Watchdog]

I think the explanation for the crown is an amalgam of the above. Having served in Cyprus (I lived in Limassol, shown on the rear of this plaque as place of manufacture) I recall that this kind of work was commonly done by local craftsmen (sometimes in military workshops, RAF AKrotiri is only a few miles from Limassol) to whom the difference in the style of the crown would have been totally insignificant if it was even noticed unless he was shown both and told "not like that, like this". This is not to suggest stupidity, far from it. It just wouldn't be a factor. There was a large British military presence around Limassol / Akrotiri / Episkopi (still is albeit smaller) and every major unit had skilled carpenters or access to them and they often did work like this.

Another explanation which is possibly more likely is that this is not a one off but that a quantity were made for use as presentations without any inscription which was a fairly normal practice for logistic reasons and the inscription would be added later as required. In this case it seems that pre 1953 stocks were not exhausted when the new badges were issued. It is actually possible that neither vendor or purchaser was even aware of the difference.

In UK, when the crown changed any remaining items with the earlier design would not be used for their original purpose and probably scrapped. However, in that part of the world such a "waste" would not be considered and wherever possible the obsolete items would still be used even via another outlet such as souvenir shops for instance.

Very much a case of "a crown is a crown".

A very nice piece all the same.

Regards

Mark

[bananamafia]

thanks guys.
my thoughts are that mr Taliadoros probably made alot of these and kept them in stock, just adding the scroll "to order" so to speak.
Post '53 still has stock and sells them a little cheaper....?

Mr Mafia....always with the wood?? :-)

Ha ha ha