EK 1914 EKII ribbons

[Spasm]

Quite a variation

[Chris Boonzaier]

Yes indeed... I specially like the austrian one...

[Jock Auld]

What has happend to the one top row 4th from the left, is it backing material on a court mount or has the white silk worn away?

jock

[Spasm]

Jock

Yes, the white stripes have completely worn away. I imagine that this was worn and cleaned very regularly by the veteran - maybe each week to meetings/church/veteran/rallies. I bought this ages ago over a bag of chips in Taunton I seem to remember. The little shop was just around the corner from the Admin Staff's Auntie's where the owner said "yes, that cross used to be mine and in my collection" then he remembered it was his shop and said "oh yes, it's still mine, of course it's mine, it's my shop".

On many of the ribbons, the white seems to be applied rather than white silk woven into the ribbon itself. You can see how it's been worn away on a lot of the ribbons as you can see on your own no doubt.

Steve

[Jock Auld]

Steve,

Do you know I have never looked that closely, I shall scurry away! Could you indicate which ribbons on the above picture you mean?

Jock

Edited September 18, 2014 by Jock Auld

[Spasm]

No. my mistake for not looking closely enough. The black areas are caused by the white silk woven onto the underlying black ribbon material being worn away. Looks like once the very thin white is broken it can be unravelled just like your mum's made jumper when you snagged it on barbed wire fences. The silk does look a lot finer on some and has come away in blocks - top row, 2nd from left.

I've never looked at the ribbon construction close enough before, obvious now that I think about it, the horizontal weave is black all the way across the ribbon, the vertical weave is made from various colours to make up the overall appearance - easily seen on the very worn ribbon with the spange attached - middle row, 1st on left.

The later WW2 black, white, red EKIIs are made the same way - horizontal black with the colours woven vertically.

The British WW2 Stars seem to have the horizontal weave colour to match the larger colour within the ribbon although the latest Arctic Star has a white horizontal weave.

No need to scurry away, sorry.