Uniform cutoff insignia set

**Jerry B** · 03-18-2013, 11:04 PM

Just bought these, a very nice set of cutoff BD insignia for the Royal Welch Fusiliers of the 53rd Welsh division. Not something you see very often. It has the printed formation patches which are not so often seen as the woven or embroidered versions. I always think it is a shame that insignia has been cutoff like this, but it would have been done back in the day, so they are a period souvenir, probably done by the soldier himself to make it easier to store or display them.

**douglas2496** · 03-18-2013, 11:06 PM

Very nice pieces, a lovely find.

**Jerry B** · 03-19-2013, 07:29 PM

Glad you liked them Douglas, that makes two of us.

**Eric Zentner** · 03-19-2013, 07:38 PM

Nice find Jerry congrats! They will display well

Eric

**Gunny Hartmann** · 03-19-2013, 07:40 PM

Great items Jerry!..

**Jerry B** · 03-24-2013, 10:30 AM

They arrived the other day and I had to scratch my head on them a bit, as the W is a bit odd, atypical backing fabric and a misprint giving them an odd shadowed effect. The rank pips are also a bit odd and following research and opinions from others, it appears that the W patches are just an unusual but WWII period version, the RWF titles are WWII types, the Rank pips and the BD are postwar, so wartime patches on a post war BD, probably belonging to a WWII Vet who served in the post war period and reused his wartime partches, especially the W's which are more worn than the other insignia.

Still a cool item, though it would have been better if they had been on a wartime BD.

**GEORGE** · 03-24-2013, 11:37 AM

i really like these, one wonders what they saw. best from george

**Jerry B** · 03-24-2013, 03:58 PM

Still not 100% certain on the Div patches if anyone has an opinion, though the most knowledgeable collector of these that I know states they are good, as have others, two collectors have expressed doubts on them and one of them is really up on British cloth patches.

**Mark K** · 03-24-2013, 04:10 PM

Hi Jerry what are the main concern's about the formation patches is it the shadowing on the W (miss printing ). Or is there another reason that they are in doubt by a couple of other collectors.

Regards Mark K

**Jerry B** · 03-24-2013, 04:26 PM

by kozowy1967

Hi Jerry what are the main concern's about the formation patches is it the shadowing on the W (miss printing ).

Regards Mark K

Hi Mark, yes the misprinting, though you do see this on period British cloth patches and also a concern is the fabric is thicker than usual, but again you see this on some period items and also the weave mostly runs from top left to bottom right whilst this runs the opposite way, but again this does occur on originals, it is the combination of all three that is a concern, though in theory this could happen.

I have mostly had positive opinions on them, but one of those who doubts them is a long time collector of British formation signs, but one of those who likes them only collects 53rd Div items and is writing a book on the Div.

Here are some stone cold original, without the shadowing and have the "normal" fabric and weave, though the 53rd are renowned as having the most diverse range of versions of their patch of any Div in WWII, with printed, woven, embroidered and cut outlined composite versions and then variations within them.

If they are fake I would expect to find more examples of them, but cannot, all the fakes are of a different type.

Thanks for getting involved in this Mark.