Brian Wolfe

Hi Tony, Nice artifact, thanks for showing it off. I've never seen one with the fuse intact...fuse? Now that's a little scary. Regards Brian

I admit to having no taste when it comes to such things. Even the colour on the walls of my study were picked out by my wife so I showed her the mounts. She liked them, however, considering the idea should have been to show the decoration off this is a failure. As a decorator item, very well done; as a treatment for a rare collectable it misses the mark. In this household ... the final word. Regards Brian

That would have been a stellar addition to your collection. I just can't help but to think that of all the countries in the world America and Canada may be the only ones who can fight a war, have so many good things come of it and be the good neighbours we are today. Or, just for you "neighbors". Regards Brian

Thanks Mervyn, Regards Brian

Collecting the Periphery – Part 4 In February 2012 I started on a series of blogs dealing with the collecting of items that didn’t really fall within the usual collecting parameters of military yet where on the fringe, or periphery, of that field. Originally I thought to begin with The London County Council (LCC) School Attendance Medals. I will admit that this was the only topic that came to mind that fit the category for which I was aiming and therefore was intended to be somewhat of a “one off” entry. After looking through the collection, in drawers long forgotten, I found several examples that fit into the area of collecting the periphery. So I decided to begin with some of those confident that I would soon exhaust the subject and armed with the LCC School Attendance Medals as my back up I waded in. Some of the topics touched on in past blogs were, Japanese Red Cross Medals, Women’s Voluntary Service Medals, Life Saving Medals and Germany’s Mother’s Crosses, to name a few. It seemed that the more I dug around in the collection the more topics I found, always shoving the School Attendance Medals to the back of the class, so-to-speak; which coincidently is where I found myself for most of my formal education. So almost two and a half years later I am finally getting around to my original subject; “The London County Council School Attendance Medals”. A standardized education system was introduced to Britain in 1870 in the form of an official Education Act. With this came the requirements for the creation of School Boards. Prior to this time the education of British children was pretty much a hit and miss proposition with attendance being non-compulsory. With the use of child labour and the need for families to bring as much funding into the home as possible the value of an education, any formal education, was seen as an unnecessary luxury. The government of the day saw a good basic education for all children would produce citizens who could read, write, and understand the history, geography and, to a point, politics of the country. Then, as today, it was recognized that an educated population was more beneficial to the country than merely an uneducated population mainly suited to manual labour. Though this was to prove to be somewhat a double edged sword as better educated workers began to form trade unions and demands for better work conditions and higher wages were put forward, sometimes violently so. I will be posting a short article on the General Strike of 1926 in the main section of the forum under the British Police section at a later date. Some of the regulations set out by the Education Act of 1870 besides the standardization of the education system were, mandatory attendance with non-attendance being punishable by law and a grant system for the running of the schools based on daily attendance. I believe that here in Ontario Canada the grants were still based on daily attendance at least until the 1950s and possibly the 1960s, when this was replaced by an “enrolment system” whereby as long as you could drag your little monster to school and enroll him or her the government would fund the school. Attendance was still mandatory though there was the option of “Home Schooling”. Returning to the 1870’s; it was decided that there needed to be a reward system aimed at the children to encourage daily attendance. Many school boards implemented a reward system where the child would earn picture cards for perfect attendance as well as medals for regular attendance for a whole school year. The London County Council school board did not implement their award system as early as many other school boards and commenced their program in 1886. In order to qualify for the medal the child needed 100% attendance with even an unavoidable absence due to illness being sufficient enough for the child to be disqualified. The system was so strict that even the headmaster’s word that the child had perfect attendance was not acceptable; it required a certificate signed by the school managers. I would suspect that the school managers depended greatly on the honesty of the headmaster to supply accurate data, rather than the managers actually verifying, on a daily basis, that the child was actually in attendance. Even with these stringent regulations there were a great number of medals awarded every year. The first of the LCC medals featured the bust of Queen Victoria and were struck in white metal which was suspended from a bronze plaque displaying the date. The pupil’s name was engraved on the back. In 1890 it was decided to offer medals stuck in different metals to signify those whose attendance went unbroken for longer periods of time. For years 1 to 3 it was white metal, 4 and 5 was in bonze and 6 through 9 years of perfect attendance the medal was gilt. Later on a 10th and even 11th year medal was offered in silver but according to some reports the only sliver 11th year medal struck was a specimen from Spink in competition for the contract; no pupils were ever awarded the 11th year medal. Following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 a new medal was struck featuring the bust of King Edward VII. There were some changes to the reverse of this medal but basically the design remained the same as the previous design. The obverse changed in 1910 as far as the wording and this can be seen in the photos below. As time went on the regulations, as they applied to medal qualifications, were lightened somewhat and up to two days absence due to illness was allowed, with a note from the parents verifying the reason for the absence. Later, it was decided that the school board needed to recognize that children who were ill were best kept home in order to lessen the chances of a class-wide infection. Therefore, children who were ill for an extended period of time were not disqualified from receiving the medal. 1911 brought with it a new monarch, King George V, following the passing of his father King Edward VII. The first pattern of medal was similar to those from past monarchs. Up to this time the medals had been 1½ inches but a new design was proposed and past that completely changed the look of the medal. The new medal was struck in bronze, suspended from a red, white and black ribbon in the military style, with the suspension bar reading LCC and the qualifying year shown on a clasp on the ribbon. For each additional qualifying year there would be a clasp added to the medal. From what I have found these “additional” clasps did not have the date specified and used a laurel branch design. The recipient’s name was shown on the medals edge rather than on the reverse and the size was reduced to 1¼ inches. There was a large medal also offered in 1912 for those who qualified under the old system, however these are very scarce with only 200 ever being awarded. The new smaller medals were issued throughout the “war years” and the last year this was offered was 1920. In the end the LCC had the longest “run” of any of the other participating school boards having used the medals system for thirty years. One of the exciting parts of collecting these medals is that at times you can also pick up the original boxes and better yet sometimes you can get a series that was awarded to one student (see photo below). In the above set you can see the change of design between 1909 and 1910 (Edward VII) and the George V large version of the 1911 as well as small version of the 1911/1912 medals. Anyone who knows me knows that I like to collect groups of medals that span monarchs as well as including design changes involving the same monarch, so this set really “spoke” to me. I hope you found this blog interesting and it will encourage you to look outside of collecting only military medals, or at least consider looking into it. Regards Brian

Excellent presentation. Thnaks for posting them, Nick. Regards Brian

A very nice pair of medals and a wonderful prize. I'll start looking for that "perfect" photo now! Regards Brian

An interesting and very complete history. Thanks for posting this, Tony. Regards Brian

Nice bar indeed Nick. Not telling what you paid? Sorry, my memory has frozen up, but is the Rising un in the correct position? Regards Brian

Very impressive work. Well done Larry and thanks for posting these. Regards Brian

Hello Paul, I'd say the largest button photo show a button with the number 2 on it, this is off the top of my head but a quick internet check should confirm this (I hope). So would this be the 2nd Regiment? A nice find. Regards Brian

An interesdting post about an even more interesting man, Thanks for taking the time to post this Mervyn. Regards Brian

Perhaps it's where I am "shopping" but these seem to be a lot harder to find than either India or Pakistan; even more than one would expect give the number issued in India and Pakistan being taken into consideration. Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread, it's starting to be become a great resource. Regards Brian

I would agree that this in one of the nicest Masonic jewels I've seen. Thnaks for posting this Mervyn. Regards Brian

This plus drones maks the computer nerds the kings of the battlefield. Regards Brian

Hi Greg, So true and exactly what I did in my youth and I still have those temptations even now from time to time. I've also come to the stage where I am starting to collect smaller items, though not necessarily less expensive. In fact, this coming week I am trading my WWII Wireless Set No. 19 Mk. 2 for a group of smaler items; at 65 pounds the radio is too heavy to move and I need the space freed up for other, smaller, military radios. Thanks for your comments. Regards Brian

Thanks for your insightful comment muckaroon. And amen to continued collecting. Regards Brian

Well done Timo. Good luck on the research, I wish I could help. Regards Brian

Thanks for your comment Chris. I left a reply just after you made your comment but I see that for some reason it did not "post". I probably hit the wrong key. Regards Brian

Thanks Mervyn. I think most collectors start out with their focus on building the collection and only after a length of time start to take a deeper interest in the items and their history. At lease I hope that is what most do, otherwise all one has is a pile of old trinkets. Regards Brian

Hello Chuck, We both seem to live parallel lives in several ways. My family has no interest in either my collections or the tools/machines in the cabinet shop so when I'm gone it will be auction time for the lot. You're bang on about the whole point is about boring people with the latest addition. Regards Brian

At the Crossroads Again! For the vast majority of collectors collecting is a passion, an obsession; some would even call it a sickness, however, those are the people whose opinions are completely unworthy of consideration. They are like vegans at a BBQ telling me that if I knew where that steak came from I would not eat it. First of all Ive been a butcher in one of my varied past work experiences so I know where meat comes from and second I tell them that I see myself as a non-practising vegetarian, I support their views in principal but shut up and pass me another hamburger...please (I always like to be civil if not completely supportive). Im also a supporter of PETA as long as that stands for People Eating Tasty Animals. My perfect meal would be steak and shrimp with BBQ chicken as a chaser just to be fair to the animal kingdom in covering all of the bases of earth, sky and water. Im nothing if not fair...oh yes, and civil. By the way I do know that chickens dont fly, or at least not very well. Now that we have eliminated the opinions of those annoying people who fail to understand us, be they friends or spouses, we can move on, even though, for some unexplained reason I am getting hungry. When we start out collecting there seems to be a never ending supply of whatever it is that we have decided to base our collection on. Take medals for example, British medals for the sake of this discussion. You go along building a collection until you have almost all of the common specimens then you realize that unless you are collecting to a particular regiment and want to continue adding to your collection the next level is going to be quite expensive. Going from a WWI Trio at around $195.00 to a Crimea 1854 Sebastopol and Turkish Crimea 1855 pair at $795.00 can take ones breath away. (Current prices provided by Tanya Ursual of Medals of War) So there you are at the proverbial crossroads of collecting (and the theme of this blog) with decisions to make. Do you take the jump to the higher level of collecting, continue on adding the same old/ same old or change collecting direction completely. Ive managed to come to this crossroads many times. Which way to go? Spend more money or change direction? Decisions, decisions, what to do? Lucky for me I can make such decisions easily as I almost always do both. Unfortunately Ive hit quite a bump in the road in that is as disastrous as the feared crossroads. No its not the advancing years of old age because I shall collect until my children pull the plug, pry the keyboard (eBay) from my cold dead fingers and nail the lid on the coffin. Actually my dear wife, Linda, said that one cannot let age determine how much we do or even what we do, within physical limits of course. Mixed Martial Arts is probably not in my future, nor Olympic javelin catching, but as to collecting its full steam ahead and the devil take the hind most. Im actually out of room in the study for any additions to the collection that take up much space. So I am left with a decision to make, sell some items (like thats going to happen), stop collecting (seriously?), take over a second room (a possibility, one is available) or mainly collect smaller items such as medals. I do have a good deal of drawer space left for medals in the units I have built for that purpose. On the other hand that other room is looking more and more inviting all of the time. As you can see even collectors who have been collecting for a good number of years still find that they are standing at the crossroads from time to time. I do have some advice for younger collectors, those who may still not be too deeply in debt to the dark side of collecting, to the point where their collection is no longer referred to as eclectic but rather just a jumble and bits of odds and ends. Always set goals. Ive always done this, however once a goal has been met and new ones started your collection will still become eclectic but at least not a hoard as might be expected of a hermit living next to the city dump. I set my goal for the British black powder firearms section of the collection starting with the Brown Bess and ending with the pre .303 cal. Martini Henrys. True somewhere along the line I did add a Bren gun and then an A1L1 FN, which still has Linda wondering how those last two fit into the collection. My only argument was that this section of the collection was a Brown Bess to Bren collection which was a great argument (to my way of thinking) until I purchased the FN then that hastily fabricated rational fell apart rather rapidly. Setting goals will assist you in staying on course and will end up costing less than collecting whatever comes along because you can afford it at the time. Its perfectly alright to have more than one goal at any given time within reason. For example you can be collecting British medals, German medals and cavalry swords at the same time but not also antique clown noses, left handed salt and pepper shakers and high compression muffler bearings. Its just too much. Keep it simple and focus. Costs should not set the goal of a collection. Dont let costs be the determining factor in the area you are collecting. By this I mean dont get to a point where there are still a good number of specimens left to collect but the price is getting too high. Still collect but not as much; were looking at quality/rarity verses quantity. Just because a Military Cross is a lot more money than a BWM should not be the only reason for changing direction. Sure if you are ready for a change then do so but if it is based on the cost then you need to slow down and add a new specimen when you can afford it and dont purchase other material at the same time. Research, research, research. Part of your collecting activities should be researching and studying the subject of your chosen field of collecting. There is a wealth of information out there in the form of books and on the internet. Take full advantage of them. Nothing is worse than a fellow with a large collection yet lacking in the knowledge of the history of the items themselves. Studying the background of the item in question will not only build a more interesting collection and a more interesting you but will help to ease the temptation to add more and more lower end items which prevents you from adding the more expensive and crucial items. Soon the addition of knowledge will become as crucial to your collection as the items themselves. Warning: While I said you will become more interesting it will probably only be so to fellow collectors. Dont expect the plebeians to understand. Beware the Card. Never and I mean never collect on the card. Credit cards are great and as long as you pay them off monthly everything will be alright. The pit fall is (and the banks are counting on this) if you purchase an item on the credit card then make the minimum payment at months end because there is something else you want you are dancing on a mine field and chances are that you will end up with the nick-name stumpy; a fellow who is always just short of being able to pay the credit card bill. Disposable income. This is a tough one and ties into the next and last bit of advice. What is disposable income? Thats the money you have left over after EVERYTHING ELSE in your life has been paid off for the month. Its money you can afford to tie up, perhaps for the rest of your life. True you can always liquidate your collection when the need arrives, if it arrives, but at what loss. Youre probably making most of your purchases at market so when it comes to selling you will most likely be looking at wholesale values. If you need to dump the lot as soon as possible you will not likely get much more than twenty-five cents on the dollar invested. Only a fool thinks that everything he or she touches turns to gold, most of the time when you need to sacrifice a collection what you will realize out of it will be more akin to something you would spread on a garden. A sad but true fact of life. Theres more to life than your collection. I do not want to sound like one of, or both of, your parents but far too many collectors end up spending their limited free time on the collection rather than on family and friends. Collections come and go and so will family and friends if you ignore them long enough. This is getting preachy but better you hear it from me than a divorce lawyer. In summary. Set some goals, stay the course and remember that there will always be more material out there to collect than there is money to purchase it. Most of all dont forget what is really important in life. Happy collecting. Regards Brian

I am in disagreement regarding the idea that every helmet is a sacred artifact and not to be altered in any way. This is not a case where the helmet or other artifact has become just another piece in an abstract sculpture or been cleverly transformed into a clock or a bird house for a cowbird. These are fitting memorials to those who served and often gave their lives for their country. The only example of Steves work that I own, which I won here on the GMIC, holds a special place in the study within my British musket collection closet. I have received more positive comments on this piece than on anything else in the collections. This is art of the calibre that could and should be in any collection of war art whether it is in a private collection, such as mine, or in a museum where the public can not only marvel at the skill of the artist but also reflect on the deeds of those the piece commemorates. To refresh the members memories of the helmet Steve so graciously donated for the competition here are the details of the soldier commemorated in the winning of the Victoria Cross in Libya, 5 June, 1942. 4458 Sergeant Quentin George Murray Smythe, 1st Battalion, Royal Natal Carabineers, 1st SA Infantry Division, South African Forces. Steves dedicated work and extraordinary talent honours the men and women of all branches of the military and conflicts regardless of their nationality. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and there is always merit in any opinion, this is mine. Regards Brian

Beautiful work as always Steve. Thanks for sharing this with the membership. Regards Brian

The knife shown in 2007 by Greg is indeed probably made by the Case Cutlery Company of Bradford, Colorado and was a second variation in that the Collins made V-44 had a black moulded synthetic grip; Collins Company was situated in Hartford, Connectict.. Another manufacturer of this knife was, Western Cutlery of Boulder Colorado. I seem to recall that Case is still making these, (or at least was several years ago), to the exact specifications as those made during the Second World War, which would account for the "new" look of the piece presented in the post. Canada's weapon of choice for use in crimes has statistically been the knife, though sadly were are starting to see an increase in crimes involving firearms. I say that this is sad because the use of a blade seldom causes collatoral damage. Regards Brian