REGAL UNIFORMA COLECTOR

Chris, be careful buying from Russia. An authenthic badge is illegal to ship from there. Antiquity laws. It will get confescated if it were the real thing. Only the fakes are getting through.

Latest Russian fakers trick. Find photos of interesting items and start sewing. You now have instant provenance. "Look...can't you see its real ? I have a photo to prove it. It must have belonged to the guy in the photo". What a scam. Check out the cloth textiles that are being used in these Imperial Russian uniforms. They are 1920's-WW2 Soviet uniforms converted into Imperial Russian uniforms. Throw some dirt, stains and add a few rips and field repairs for affect. Cool http://cgi.ebay.com/WW1-WWI-RUSSIAN-AIRFOR...1QQcmdZViewItem

Shoulder boards of the IRAS Imperial Russian Air Service from my collection. Pilot - 2nd Lieutenant. Made in Sebastopol. Air Observer and or Bombadier - Captain. Air observers were commonly Artillery officers who sought service in the Air Corps. Grey steel button. Eagle has crown removed. Circa 1917 provisional. Probably one of the last officers to make it out alive from Gatchina. Pilot - Staff Captain, 2nd Kaukaus Army. 94% silver wire. George...thought you might get a kick out of these since your Grandfather was a IRAS pilot.

close up

WW1 - 9 place Royal Romanian medal bar with a gold wash Imperial Russian Zeal medal.

George, Not all cast pieces are fake. Many Russian badges and medals made in China and Manchuria ( Harbin and Tien-Sing) during the civil war were made using a sand cast. Metals used were melted down Russian gold and silver coins as well as lead, copper and brass from bullets and coins. A collector really needs to examine cast made pieces for age and originality as well as determine the source of where it came from, Provenance (estate history) and geographical area.

There is one Ebay dealer here in the USA and one dealer in the UK who consign from the same source in Russia fakes, reproductions, and married pieces and sell them on Ebay as originals. It is interesting that when they are challenged, they come up with either a no return policy as the items are being consigned from Russia and the consignor is to remain Anonymous or the item has a life time guarantee of authenticity, however, it is you who has to prove otherwise by some testimonial letter from some expert from a Russian Museum in Russia. DON'T THESE STATEMENTS MADE BY THE SELLER RAISE SOME RED FLAGS AS TO WHO YOU ARE DEALING WITH ???

George, Personally, I think the construction of your badge is very good. I would say judging from the photos that it is genuine. Closer inspection is needed to evaluate the gold finish : Thickness - Is it gold plate or gold wash. Color - Yellow gold or Rose gold. Reverse side - color found on the back side. A lot of badge have been made in which the front is in brilliant color and the reverse is subdued and or blacken. Fakes will give off a nasty chemical or gunpowder taste and can even smell as they were recently done the past 10 years to achieve this type of look and finish.

These jeweler made badges in which each laurel and oak leaf was individually made and attached to an oval ring are very nice in the workmanship. I have seen this construction in gold, silver and war time steel. However, I am also seeing fakes like these hitting the market. Because of the high value of what badges sell for today, fakes today are being made by jewelers to look the same. What a collector needs to observe is discrepencies in the finish. Bright gold finish on the front and dull, dirty and discolored in the rear. Calls for for closer inspection. Also, check the gold color. Fakes are appearing in yellow gold. Russian gold of the period is rose gold. Gold that has a pink red cast. The fakes are all yellow gold. I guess they have not figured out how to duplicate in a gold guilt / plating machine how to make the gold pink in color.

Many reproductions have hit the market of black enamel orders. Originals were made pre-1850 and the enameling was almost like glass. Flat and hard. Very dark translucent. Looks solid black but under light it is translucent. Not like the enamel found on orders of the late 1800's or early 1900's. The fakes have enameling like you see today and are of a solid pastel black color. The color pigment is also very bright of todays color standards.

George, Hard to tell from the photo, but what stands out to me is the pebble look to the surface, less detailing to the Czar NII bust, and the excess metal slag on the right bottom edge 5:00 o'clock between the letters and the metal edge. My gut feeling is that this piece is cast.

The fake artist of Russia are getting better at their trade. More detailing and handcrafting probably made by a Moscow jeweler last month. What they cannot duplicate is the gold finish. Badges were made with a gold wash finish. This badge is gold plated. A fake.

Reproduction - Look at the pebble finish on the back side. This indicates cast, not stamped. Also look at the blue finish behind the eagle, fresh. Early reproductions made about 10 years ago, the Russians experimented with trying to duplicate a black or blued finish by using gunpowder. These badges even today smell and taste of gunpowder. If your'e in doubt, smell and tast the badge. It works.

Looking at the ball suspension and the quality of the sword hilts, I think that this piece is either Austrian or Romanian made. Any Mfg marks on it ? I would lean more towards Austrian as Romania was a little bit cruder in quality. However, you did have one jewler who operated in both countries doing ball suspensions like this.

Like to comment, but no photo here.

Can not tell from the photo. Too blury. Most silver diamond shaped badges were school and societies related like Masons.

This is an original piece. Stamped serial numbers and stamped ring loop hole. Fakes are cast.

First - The Farberge stamp is applied to an already exisiting piece to up the value of the piece. Collectors tend to get all bug eyed and salivate when they see something stamped Farberge and it clouds there gut instinct and judgement. Second - Look at the stamp itself. Inside the indentation and around the letters, it is not clean. Fuzzy and textured. A pebble look with excess balls of metal slag residue which the faker can not clean up when buffed and polished. That means that this badge is a cast badge. Certainly a fake.

The Farberge metal stamps have been available in Russia for several years now. Anyone can obtain these stamps. What is really tricky is that dealers are stamping original silver antiques and increasing the value 10 fold by just adding the Farberge stamp.

can anyone identify this piece ?

RULE #1 - Don't buy from China. RULE # 2 - Don't buy from China. Old Chinese trick for aging steel, bronze and brass. Put it in the ground or barrel with Human waste. After a few months, what you get is a very aged weapon or antique with a very beleivable patina.