Finally, emerging from the M&K workshop, is this amazing….
Large Solid Cast Bronze Royal Navy HMS Hood Mounted Screen Badge c.1920-41
The “Mighty Hood” was an Admiral class battlecruiser of the RN, built by John Brown & Company, Clydebank, ordered during WW1 in 1916 and commissioned in 1920.
Her story and career is well documented, from being the largest warship in the world for 20 years after her commissioning, to her untimely sinking at the hands of the Kriegsmarine battleship “Bismarck”, which rocked the Admiralty and British Government to the very core, the nations hero and hope had just been sunk!
This heavy 15kg, 19” x 15” solid bronze badge, depicting a Cornish chough bearing an anchor, is well presented on mahogany, it’s attached with 3 imperial measure bolts to the rear and has been sympathetically polished. We are not 100% certain of all it’s history, but after speaking to the previous owners, it was originally discovered in Portsmouth and seems to be cast for the ship, but possibly not used or was removed in one of its many maintenance periods or refits, who knows?
It’s suffice to say, that it came to us with a fair bit of used patina and deposits of old polish, which has been subsequently removed to reveal the bronze underneath and has been fitted with a suspension bracket to the rear.
Generally provenance is everything, but if I had a piece of paper signed by the Admiralty, I’d be asking at least double this advertised price but those pieces of provenance are incredibly rare for most or if not all naval artefacts.
Either way, this is an incredible rare piece of history, which like the ship is very imposing indeed!
£2695
(All cards except Amex are welcome)
Local delivery, U.K & international shipping available with collections welcome too
