Disappointments

[backman]

I get requests to replace lost and stolen badges almost every day now from my sales site. Increasingly I am having to be quite brutal in telling people that for most of these, it will be a long and fruitless search.Unless we are talking about one of the larger teaching Hospitals where many hundreds of badges were issued or one where the same pattern of badge was issued for many years, it can be a needle in a haystack as far as smaller schools are concerned.
The main reason is the very personal bond that nurses have with their Training school and their badge.Knowing what it took to earn why would we part with it? Hence most of the badges which come onto the market are those where the recipient has passed away, so probably pre 1960s? Other than unissued batches such as the East Rodings/Essex,etc more recent items tend to trickle onto the market.Just how many of these may be some of those lost or stolen items is debatable and unless individually named we may never be sure.
If we consider just how many different badges there were and how many we have still never seen, for some requests it is extremely unlikely I will ever be able to source a replacement( although occasionally a drawer full may appear the finding week!) Even throwing money at the problem doesn't always seem help, except perhaps for the Nightingale school of Nursing where their exorbitant prices tend to flush more onto the market.I have a gentleman looking for a replacement badge for his wife(Ayrshire & Arran)who is happy to pay what is necessary but even then he will be lucky. As is the case with supply and demand amongst Military badge collectors the answer might be restrikes? Perhaps we do need to explore the viability of having copies made, indeed there are some Mental hospital copies which were produced a while back? I really don't know the answer but the moral is hang onto your own badge and try not to have it lost or stolen( I recommend having it engraved if not already done so). If you are lucky to have managed to source a replacement be grateful but for those many others keep looking and luck will play a major part in your hunt!!

[myk1066]

On the back of your comment regarding restrikes.  Would it be a case of contacting, say Fattorini, badge makers with fair badge & asking if  they can reproduce it?  I recall a post about someone contacting, again I think Fattorini, badge maker to ask if they keep proofs but am not 100% sure.  Would there be © copyright  issues?
Regards
Mike

[wilfb]

Hello Myke,

I think that asking the original manufacturer is a reasonable course of action, but am aware that Fattorini no longer have their original badge patterns, although other manufacturers could be helpful. (There are  several). We carried an article by 'Alicostello' a while back - the badge replicas he had made were perfect - I can vouch for that as we gave away one or two in a competition and I bought one to go with another article. His prices were very reasonable although I don't know about individual copies or if he still has them made.

Peter's suggestion about replicas may well turn out to be the only way some could be replaced - but being able to do so would probably depend on an original being available - but between us I am sure that we have a fair number (though by no means all) of original badges.

I think that Sue (nursesue) may also have one or two of 'Alicostello's' badges and may be able to comment on quality.  I will find the article link and paste it here in a little while.

http://www.schoolsofnursing.co.uk/Articles/ACReplicaBadges1.htm

It might be worth noting that we are preparing an article on badge manufacturers - hopefully linking hospital badges to manufacturer - which will most probably be ready around June. It might also be worth republishing our advice about what to do to in an attempt recovery of a lost badge.  Perhaps an update?  Although if Peter -

http://petersnursingcollectables.com/

cannot find a badge there may be little hope apart from 'Sally Bosley' -

http://www.sallysbadges.com/home.php

I will update the links I have shortly. (UPDATED).

Best,
Will
Ps. The links are added by schoolsofnursing and are intended solely for the purpose of discussion - not advertising.  *Similar links require permission.