The Royal Navy Division Cap Badges - Real or Fake?
Here we start a new thread that aims to provide solid information on the much sought after series of cap badges of the battalions and units of The 63rd Royal Navy Division (RND). The division consisted of:
1st Royal Navy Brigade
1st - 4th Battalions: Drake, Hawke, Benbow, and Collingwood.
2nd Royal Navy Brigade
5th - 8th Battalions: Nelson, Howe, Hood, and Anson.
Each battalion came to have it's own cap badge circa 1916, aside from the Collingwood and Benbow battalions, which were decimated at Gallipoli and the remaining troops redeployed amongst the other battalions.
The Drake battalion cap badge
Coming soon
The Hawke battalion cap badge
Coming soon
The Nelson battalion cap badge
Was produced in two sizes, a regular sized XX mm [h] and a smaller 36.5 mm [h] badge. The smaller badge is always on a slider. The definition is very good, as shown.
Good versus bad
Here is a side by side of a good badge, left, and a typical faked badge, right. These fakes are found frequently, they are often sold as original. They are not.
A couple of obvious features to look out for are highlighted in the next image. The proper sail crease pattern and the Nelson letter style/font and the letter orientation are detailed, left. When seen the copy side by side like this, it is very easy to tell the difference.
It is less easy to see the difference with this convincing copy, right. Again next to the same original badge, left. There are some subtle differences to note, as boxed.
On the lower sail of the original, those small vertically running creases are consistent in length and alignment, whereas on the copy they are not.
Again, the Nelson lettering isn't right, wrong font and poorly defined.
The hull height on the copy is noticeably higher.
These revised copies have emerged more recently and are often accompanied with a faked Gaunt maker tablet. These are detailed later in the thread.
The Howe battalion cap badge
Coming soon
The Hood battalion cap badge
Coming soon
The Anson battalion cap badge
Coming soon
Gaunt maker mark tablet
J.R. Gaunt London, seems to have been the main supplier of these cap badges. Some badges are found fitted with their maker mark on a separately applied to the reverse of the badge on a brass oblong (known as a tablet). Do not be fooled into thinking that this is not a sign of a genuine badge, the tablets themselves have been faked. This next image is a comparison of a real tablet, bottom, and a fake tablet, top.
Note the font of the fake, the three N's are all different. The tablet is a uniform rectangle in shape; whereas on the original tablet the N's are consistent (same punch) and the tablet is not a uniform shape.
Badges with this fake tablet started appearing in recent years, often on RND cap badges. I have come across half a dozen of such recently, and had only one badge with a real tablet badge in the many years before that.