Fall 2026 Militaria and Aviation Auction
Lot 50:
Description
Theater-Made USAAF Aircrew Wings, Great Seal Medallion, SILVER Marked. A British-made USAAF-pattern wing badge, circa 1942-1945, centered on a raised Great Seal medallion – theater-purchase insignia worn by American airmen stationed in wartime England. This lot comprises a single full-size wing badge, approximately 2 inches in span, its outstretched feathered wings flanking a circular medallion bearing the Great Seal of the United States – the eagle with shield, olive branch, and arrows beneath a radiating field of stars. No individual recipient, unit, or aircrew specialty is identified with this piece, and no separate biography or provenance has been located; it is offered on its own merits as a well-worn, characterful example of English theater-made insignia rather than as a named grouping. During the Second World War the United Kingdom served as the operational base for the American strategic bombing campaign, hosting hundreds of thousands of Eighth and Ninth Air Force personnel across East Anglia and beyond. Government-issue insignia was frequently lost, damaged, or simply outshone by better-finished commercial alternatives, and airmen commonly patronized local jewelers in London, Birmingham, and other manufacturing towns for private-purchase replacement wings and sweetheart-style badges. Pieces of this type survive today as tangible artifacts of that wartime relationship between American servicemen and British silversmiths, rendered in local sterling rather than U.S. government contract dies. The badge is sand-cast rather than die-struck, giving the reverse a distinctly granular, uneven surface consistent with small-batch British manufacture. A wide-hinge brass pin assembly and roller/barrel locking catch – a form seldom seen on American-made insignia – further support an English or European origin. The reverse is stamped SILVER, with a maker’s initial or hallmark struck above it that is now partially worn and not fully legible in the photographs. The pin stem shows a slight bend but remains complete, and the hinge and catch appear intact, though their operation has not been independently tested. No case, ribbon bar, or accompanying paperwork is present with this lot – the badge alone. Surfaces show an attractive, unpolished aged patina with moderate tarnish and warmer toning in the recessed feather detail, wear consistent with genuine period use rather than modern reproduction. An honest, well-handled example of British theater-made USAAF insignia – a tangible, if anonymous, echo of the wartime bond between American aircrews and the English craftsmen who outfitted them.
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