Militaria

Great Southern & Western Railway (of Ireland) Headdress Badge, a rare example in white metal of letter form complete with blackened metal backing plate, two pierced loop fasteners; Great Southern Railway, a small white metal script letter hat/collar badge, blade fasteners; Glasgow and South Western Railway, a heavy gauge cast brass script letter hat/collar badge, loop fasteners (crushed); South Eastern Railway, a multi-part oval shaped headdress badge with central “SER/256”, two loop fasteners; Great Northern Railway, a similar oval badge of the sew-on variety in gilt brass and copper; North Eastern (Railway), a multi-part white metal headdress badge with central “NE/460”, two pierced loop fasteners; a group of various letter style cap or collar badges “MR”, three of roped script style, two in Roman capitals of variable size; a small gilt brass “DR”, blade fasteners; an extremely large cast metal “WR”, two loop fasteners; two flattened oval brass tokens for the “SE&CR” stamped Blackfriars and the other Bricklayers Arms; another rectangular plain brass badge stamped “SE&CR”; an unused pouch badge in die-stamped white metal for the “London and North Western Railway” (Britannia Centre), no fasteners applied; Midland Railway Ambulance Corps, an unissued circular badge in brass and blue enamel; Street Rail Company Limited, an interesting white metal (? requires careful cleaning) two part waist belt clasp of British Military 1855 pattern, the company name enclosing crossed Union and American flags, crossed hands, shamrocks and initials SR, matching benchmarks, good overall condition (19) £350-450

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Buttons from the J.R. Gaunt and Son Pattern Book Archive.

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The Street Rail Company Ltd., was the first tramway in London in 1861, started by an American, George Francis Train. His first venture was the Birkenhead Street Railway Company Limited (1860). The three route system for London was not a success and the whole venture was closed by June 1862. The shamrocks may allude to his proposed tramway system for Cork.