Traditional Indian Court Mounting

[Brian Wolfe]

A few months ago I "won" a group of WWII Indian medals on the internet. These were court mounted and included the India Independence Medal which really appealed to me. I like groups of medals that "talk to me" and the era of the British Raj/Independent India has always intrigued me. When they arrived they were no longer court mounted but included the ribbons as they had been without the mounting board and the attachment pin. Needless to say I was disappointed somewhat as I like to add groups as they were worn though I do court mount a lot of groups that come to me loose.

I decided to follow the needle patterns in the ribbons and redo the court mount as it had been. My method is usually to use acid-free glue as well as some stitching with nylon (invisable) thread. This time, however, I would have to forgo the glue and try to become a real tailor. One of the errors, I will tell you right off, was that I misjudged the height of the mounting board, which I usually cut at 3 1/2 inches. I knew this one was shorter and settled for 3 inches. Two and one half would have probably been better. As I preceesed to copy the sewing, in most cases using the same needle holes, I started to get a better feel of the original tailor's work and the difficulty in producing a court mount with a minimum of ribbon. In what I will call the "British style" it is common to cover the mounting board with one piece of six inch ribbon and then using a second piece of six inch to mount the medal. I've included rough sketches below to try to illustrate this. In the case of the Indian Tailors the initial six inches of ribbon is all they use. This is cut and one piece (about 2 1/4 inches is afixed to the bottom of the mounting board and then the rest is used to mount the medal. It goes without saying that there is a need in India to conserve material if for no other reason than keeping the cost to the customer as low as possible. We are lucky here in the Western World to be able to be more extravagant.

One of the things that is evident when you look at a mount done in India and one done, say, in the UK is that there is stitching along the medal's mounting bar in the Indian method that is absent in the the "British style". You need to stitch along the bar in the Indian style in order to afix the ribbon and the medal to the mounting board. I hope this shows up in the sketch. The result is shown in the last photo of this post indicated by the little white arrow.

This has lead me to start to do a lot more stitch work on my mounts and use less ribbon to copy the Indian style more closely. I've always stitched along the medal's mounting bar to imitate the correct style but now I am trying to duplicate it accurately. The error on the part of the dealer has lead my to discover the original method used in India, it's almost like archaeology. Oh, the error in the height of the mounting board only resulted in some of the stitches having to be in a different location.

The first photo is of the completed group as it would have appeared when it was with it's original recipient.

[Brian Wolfe]

This is the sketch I drew up. I'm no draftsman but I hope it shows what I am trying to describe.

[Brian Wolfe]

This is the end result of the two styles. I think they both look good in their own way. I decided to mount Gen. Bucher's medal in the British style even though he was CinC of the Indian Army when he would have recieved it. It's a judgement call and I'm happy with it.

Thanks for taking a look at my post and a glimpse into my twisted world of court mounting.

Regards

Brian

[Tony]

Brian,

It looks as if you've done a great job and I now know how to spot an Indian court mounted group too.

Tony

[Brian Wolfe]

Brian,

It looks as if you've done a great job and I now know how to spot an Indian court mounted group too.

Tony

Thanks Tony.

Court mounting has become a side hobby of mine now and a couple of coworkers have asked that I court mount their father's medals. I'm going to have to retire just to have time for all of my hobbies.

Regards

Brian