CANVAS PATCHES

[Grant]

Picked up these two painted canvas patches, both stamped "RKO Studios" on the reverse . Thought one of them might look cool sewn on an M41 or tanker!

 

[Silver Surfer]

as you most likely know, many were made under contract by max berman co. during wwll. some were made directly in the art dept of rko as well. they were kinda "knocked out", so many are off on the details. some more then others. they were given away and or sold at bond rallies, public schools, etc. [these were intended as kid's "support the war effort collectibles"] . tons were made and they are still available for small coin. if i am not mistaken, they have been reproduced over the years as well. interesting to me is that they were [for the most part]hand painted, and not often decal applied. of note, i have seen them applied to original wwll a-2s on occasion.

 

[Grant]

Cool, thanks for the info, brother! Had no idea there were given away at bond rallies, but makes sense.
I dig the muted color palate of the paint used and the rough texture of the canvas.
Do you think enamel paint was used?

 

[unclegrumpy]

These are both reproductions made and sold by a fellow in Southern California. He has been at it for years, and his work is often seen on leather jackets...he sells patched jackets too...often real jackets. 20 years or so ago, these were available in small quantities with a bigger story, now they are just in piles...and piles...all painted the same...and stamped the same. Maybe he started with a sliver of truth...like a few patches that might have come from RKO, but now he is so far beyond that he is not hiding anything.

Read the last post in this thread:

http://wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/showthread.php?t=292129

 

[Grant]

Cool, thanks for the info. If they are modern repros, they're some of the most convincing I've seen in a while.
I'll happily sew them on cloth jackets I tend to beat the shit out of!

 

[EmergencyIan]

The Bugs Bunny patch is pretty neat! That would look good on just about any WWII jacket.

- Ian

 

[unclegrumpy]

Yes, they are to be enjoyed...and I like the Bugs Bunny patch the best too.

 

[CBI]

OMG, just looked at the Wermacht thread, Brain French, - what a F*%#@ - he never sent me patches or a refund for items I ordered. He DID receive my money This was 10 plus years ago before I knew better. There was a guy on eBay also in So. Cal who sold LOADS of these.

I actually don't think they (RKO patches) look that great and would not sew them on anything. There are nicer options out there for not much $. Just IMO. The BB one is OK.

You know, there were so many Disney designs but people today don't know about all of this Disney/WW2 stuff. For the general public, they see a grown man in a military jacket with a cartoon character patch on and my guess wonder what kind of strange man-child the wearer is????

Just my funny 2 cents!

Grant - your collection is so top drawer.................don't do it man!!!

 

[Grant]

Thanks CBI, but I wear my repro cloth stuff pretty hard biking around Manhattan, so sewing a repro patch on is no biggie.
Obviously, I'd never consider sewing a patch on or painting any of my original cloth stuff.

 

[Silver Surfer]

ah yes, brian french, aka mr jeep or some such. i maintain that some canvas patches were made in wwll and applied to a-2s during the war. however, i do not disagree with the consensus that most available today are post war made, or repros. a simple way to narrow down the appx. era of these patches is to look at them under a uv [black light] light. if they glow, they are certainly made post early-mid 1950s, since lead as a binder additive in paint was discontinued at about that time. the most telling is white, which really glows if it is not lead based. if the patch was painted with acrylics, it will glow uniformaly. my understanding is that acrylic paints came into common use in the early 1960s. btw: if i am not mistaken, kids collector patches were indeed a part of the war effort, collected and traded much as baseball cards were and are.

 

[unclegrumpy]

You are totally correct, there are a number of original WW II patches that were on canvas....both AAF and Navy...just not these.

However, they tend to be squadron specific...meaning encountered as being used by particular units rather than broadly used. One thing common with the vast majority of canvas patches...original ones...is they are screen printed rather than hand painted. Some of the Navy ones may have been stenciled using paint, but they clearly are not what one would typically call "hand painted".

I could not quickly find any Navy examples, but the below are all from WW II, and made by the same company. These designs are found both with and without the sewn on borders. The units seem to have all been in the Southeastern part of the Country for training fairly early in the war, so they likely were made by a company in that area.

There are 8th AAF canvas patches too...the 508th BS comes to mind, but I could only find pictures of fakes of that one.