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Rob, Neville for what it’s worth: I compared Neville’s framed ZAR badge with one in my collection that can be traced back to the owner in the Boer War. They are identical although it seems that Neville’s framed badge was gilded which make lines and details appear a fraction thicker. The details in the framed badge however do preclude that it was a copy made of a cast of a real one, so it is safe to conclude that it was stamped on original dies. This leaves 3 possibilities: Badge was issued and salvaged from a uniform item, it came from unissued stock in Pretoria or it was produced at some stage on the original dies in the UK. It looks too perfect and shiny to me to support field use. Also, if reproductions had been made on real dies it would not be a scarce badge (which it is) and there would at the time have been no reason to charge double the price for it of a real British badge as per the advertisement. Also, dies show wear when large numbers of badges are produced, which means that there would be unused badges in the market with diminished detail. I have not encountered these. So my money is on unissued stock.

Neville, the fact that end product and dies were sent to Bloemfontein from Germany unfortunately doesn’t preclude a post war English production. The war-souvenir hunger from soldiers (and their guests) was sheer insatiable and the stuff the Brits and Colonials schlept home from the Republics is sometimes utterly baffling. For example, Lady Sarah Wilson did some co-ransacking of Koos DelaRey’s residence and the documents that she brought home included many which had absolutely nothing to do with the war. OVS Badge dies must have been prized loot and like the dies of the veldpond almost certainly ended up in the UK if they hadn’t been properly hidden or destroyed. This only means that OVS badges could have been produced later, it doesn't mean that it actually happened.

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This “Pretoria Volunteer Rifle Corps” [Pretoria Vrijwillige Corps] catalogue card, either from a British manufactory (J.R. Gaunt?) or military outfitter (Christys' of London?), has affixed to it a helmet plate and shako badge, both in bronze. Despite the ink inscription, the shako badge is not of a type used by the PVC, which might explain why the helmet star has the word “supplied” beneath it while the smaller star does not. On their shakos, the Pretoria Vrijwillige Corps instead wore a three-quarter helmet plate with blank disc to the centre (see below). A white metal version of the small star was, however, worn by the Krugersdorp Vrijwillige Corps.

Apart from the more exaggerated star-burst shape of the larger helmet plate, the most striking difference between this and the type worn by the Transvaal Staatsartillerie is the use of broader central rays extending to each point.

The use of bronze for these two badges appears to have been for catalogue purposes only, as ZAR insignia were made from either brass or white metal.







Pretoria Volunteer Corps and Transvaal Staatsartillerie helmet stars, showing the differences in design. Note the (incorrect) double-shaft ox-wagon in the lower field of the coat-of-arms on the PVC version.





A member of the Pretoria Vrijwillige Corps wearing the type of plate attached to the folio card. Bizarrely, the star has been attached to the helmet the wrong way up. Note also the belt buckle with the Transvaal arms, which are identical to those in the centre of the shako badge (again with double-shaft ox-wagon – see photographs at end of post).





Brass version of the bronze shako badge on the catalogue card. Despite the “Pretoria Volunteer Rifle Corps” heading on the latter, these were not worn by the PVC. [Owen #1995].





Pretoria Vrijwillige Corps group photograph, showing the three-quarter star shako badges. Most are obscured by horse-hair plumes, but the stance of the two reclining sergeants in the front row allows for a partial view of the plates. Photograph provided by MC Heunis.





This PVC officer's shako turned up on eBay a few years back. Unfortunately, I didn’t know enough about Transvaal Volunteers’ headdress at the time, and despite the ZAR supplier's label, believed it to be non-military. The blank centre of the three-quarter star threw me, and I imagine surviving badges of this type nearly always go unidentified. Officers' shakos sported feathers, while those of NCO's and men had horse-hair plumes (see group photo above).







Johan Wolfaardt of the War Museum of the Boer Republics, knowing that the PVC did not wear the small shako stars, and that the KVC used a white metal version, did a bit of digging, and believes the brass variant was worn by a short-lived offshoot of the Pretoria Vrijwillige Corps – the President’s Guard. He states “The Presidents Wacht used brass hardware. All other Volunteers, save Krugersdorp, used the big ZAR coat of arms, or semi-circular starburst”.




The President’s Guard, wearing the brass version of the shako badge. The belt buckles appear to be the same as those worn by the PVC – see below. Photograph provided by Johan Wolfhaardt.





Pretoria Vrijwillige Corps belt buckle and the bronze shako badge, showing the incorporation of the same design of ZAR coat of arms. Note the use of white metal on the former. Looking at the finer detail, I believe the central motifs have almost certainly been struck from the same die, with the ends of the motto ribbon on the shako version cropped to fit the star. The buckle has been heavily distorted through the use of a wide-angle lens and should be rectangular. Photograph of belt buckle provided by MC Heunis.






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Wow, Neville!