Topic: Military weight, W.W.1 ?

[keith]

Royal Medical Corps, there was one on here similar a while ago described as being Czech / Belgium, am I on the right track ?

[bat20]

Interesting Keith,I wonder if other regiments had them made.

[daveweight]

Hi Keith
Paul Ysart made lots of these military badge weights when he was working at the Moncrieff Glassworks in the 1930's - 40's. Soldiers would even bring their regimental badge to him and he would make it into a paperweight for them for a few pennies. As well as badges Paul would also encase brass buttons from greatcoats but he did not make so many of these as the badges. Paul even made pedestal versions of these badge weights
Some of these badge weights were also made in Belgium and in many cases it is easy to spot the difference between these and Paul's as they have a much wider spread of the spattered base and in some case the badge floats above this as opposed to being sat in it but there are some where it is hard to tell who made them
Personally I think yours is an Ysart version but let's see what others think
Dave

[tropdevin]

***

Hi.  I don't know which this one is - the base looks like Paul's, the frit looks Belgian!  But sometimes you can get an indication from the details of the badge, which can tie it to a time period.  If a badge dates to 1920 or earlier, there may be a greater chance it was made for troops in Belgium rather than by Paul perhaps 20 years later than that.

Alan

[keith]

Thanks both, I'll see if I can put a date to the badge and go from there,ta,

[KevinH]

In Colin Mahoney's book, "Masterworks the paperweights of Paul Ysart", he commented that Pauls' son, Salvador remembered Paul coming home one day with a box full of "medals" [my quotes - since I believe "medals" meant cap badges, etc.].

And Colin suggested that this indicated a "form of experimentation" rather than anything to do with the war(s) or troops in the area.

It is interesting to note that of the cap badges that have been researched I think most, if not all, were from regiments that existed before WWII - and some (or most?) of those were no longer in existence by the time of WWII. So ... perhaps a number of the cap badge (etc.) weights were encased on request from "old soldiers"? But there is proof of this one way or the other. ( * )

However, I think it is very unlikely that specific regiments made requests for badges etc. to be encased as weights.

As for the weight in this thread ... I have no idea if it was by Paul Ysart or made in Belgium / Alsace region, or somewhere else entirely!!

( * ) Edited to confirm - should have said, "But there is no proof of this one way or the other".

[daveweight]

Kev has hit the nail on the head here when he rightly says many of the badges in these weights are from regiments that no longer existed before WWII so the badge itself does not give any indication as to when the weight was made.

I have a letter from Colin Terris who spoke to Paul about these badge weights and in this letter Colin says Paul told him he made many of these weights and sold them all out of the back door at Moncrieff's.

Dave

[tropdevin]

***

Hi Dave

I think it is not quite a case of 'no information about date based on the badge': ...if a new badge was introduced in 1925, for example, then a paperweight containing it would have to be made in 1925 or later.

I suspect that Paul (and Salvador) may have seen this style of encapsulated item when they were in France prior to World War 1, along with sulphides on spatter grounds, harlequins, fountains, and pedestal weights that originated in Belgium or Alsace - designs that they later reproduced.

Alan

[mjr]

Hi
I would agree with Alan - that the base looks Ysartish rather than continental. 
I usually go by profile  - and as someone has said, the continentals tend to be flatter and more rounded at the bottom, Ysart more hemispherical with a squarer profile to the edge of the base. Whilst these photos do not give a perfect view, the profile does seem to be an Ysartish one.   Also colour - not so much the frit, but of the glass - Ysart tends to have a bit of greyness to it.
As to the badge, those that I have come across seem to be quite random - and I would subscribe to the theory that Ysart weights are done using items from  a box of random badges that was acquired

Martin