DATE: WW1, c.1915

A superb, and highly unusual, antique brooch that would have been presented to a member of one of the British Army's Recruitment Bands - presumably for service in 1915. The letters are set with rose cut diamonds, and the date with rubies. Modelled in 9k gold with silver settings.

Recruiting Bands were employed by army recruitment agencies of many nations throughout the 19th and into the 20th Century. Typically they would have been made up of musicians drawn from the ranks, and were strongly endorsed by Rudyard Kipling who argued for ‘an end of the present curious arrangement by which our soldiers go marching here, there, and everywhere….miles of training preparation with no sound of music save that of their own singing and whistling’, and he urged the value of the band as a recruiting agent.

STONES 

Diamond & Ruby

MEASUREMENTS 

3.3 x 3.3cm

WEIGHT 

4.2g

MARKS 

No marks present, tests as 9k gold

CONDITION 

Very good, one or two stones missing