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Couple Horrible Fakes
- Thread starter dmar836
- Start date
a2jacketpatches
Active Member
Definitely crappy work, but The squadron patch is dead on to one I've seen before and actually had to replicate for a guy, and the 14th AF looks familiar as well. Some of the originals look like they were made by feet.
a2jacketpatches
Active Member
Could be the one I did, and if I did it poorly, it was true to the reference he gave me. And that's not even the ugliest tiger I've seen.
These could also be very good fakes of crappy originals.
These could also be very good fakes of crappy originals.
Well, I seriously doubt it was yours. This previous one had really irregular stitches that were poorly tensioned and the thread was very thin and synthetic looking. It was on Spam-like split leather and looked like a 5 year old did it. Guess that's likely how many originals were made but when you see how nice some of the Italian patches came out it's a wonder these were ever put on a jacket. Maybe the guys had limited choices where they were. Lots of variety in CBI add-ons.
Dave
Dave
I've seen many similar originals over the years, some much worse than these, have to remember most were locally made in India, knocked up quickly sometimes from poor sketches given by airmen to the maker. Quality in the CBI was often way below those made in Italy and the ETO. I'd be more wary of a 'perfect' symetrically made patch to be honest.
a2jacketpatches
Active Member
havocpaul said:
Agreed, then on the other hand, some of the most beautifully executed silk embroidery of all theaters.
Indians were/are expert in silks especially in many of the regions where the Allies were based. Leather-work was more specialist although hides (non-cow!) could be found in most market places. I remember seeing photos of traders offering chits and CBI patches read-made, catering for the servicemen.
a2jacketpatches
Active Member
So many multi-piece leather patches compared though, but I think I've seen the photo. I remember a vet telling me about these stands, they were everywhere. CBI is my favorite theater for hand made insignia. I'd like to see that pic if you can find it.
shedonwanna
Active Member
I've seen these exact two patches before. They were part of this grouping on eBay in 2009. So easy to find vintage name tags and shoulder patches to group with reproduced patches to give an appearance of provenance. These look like no other originals I've seen and even poorly executed vintage patches have similar duplicates that appear over the decades. These could be vintage patches but personally would want more info than just a photo. I am just not personally familiar with the 374th. These two look like something that could have been made in a smaller market in China. The second photo is a patch that looks more like the vintage patches I have seen. Karachi was a popular place to obtain patches during the war. It was, and still is, a large city with a garment industry, plenty of tailors and access to the leather materials to produce great patches.
The one thing that makes the squadron patch scream fake to me isnt the fact of the quality I've seen documented originals way worse than that patch, what stands out to me is the size, look at how small that patch is, they compared it to a quarter, it looks more the size of a shoulder patch than a squadron patch, dont get me wrong there were original squadron patches made that small but it was very uncommon, especially if one was having it custom made for them.
a2jacketpatches
Active Member
It is a little small, but just a little. Looks to be just under 5" Any more examples out there in the burgandy color? or an idea why one is dark red and the other yellow? Otherwise, there's really nothing that screams fake to me at all. Again, I did one like this a while back, same color and construction.
