PLEASE NOTE: KANA is BACK IN THE OFFICE as of TODAY TUESDAY 10/07,
I am Still ON THE ROAD until MONDAY OCTOBER 13th!!
I have SOME of our MILITARIA Inventory so Shipping of SOME Orders MAY BE DELAYED until 10/13!!
THANK YOU for the HUGE Amount of Orders While we were away!!!
We will Finish Processing and SHIPPING Them out over the Next Few Days!!!
Update 10/07/25: WE ARE STILL EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH non-PayPal CREDIT CARD PURCHASES!!
BIG WEBSITE CHANGES are in the works and this Issue WILL BE CORRECTED sometime in OCTOBER!!
If you would like to PAY for an Artifact valued at OVER $100.00 with a CREDIT CARD, please email and I will get an invoice emailed to you ASAP!
We are HAPPY TO ACCEPT YOUR ORDERS during this time, and we will promptly SHIP MOST orders within ONE Business Day of Receipt of Payment!
And, as always, if you would like to fund your $100.00+ order through a Bank that offers ZELLE, ASK ABOUT our ZELLE DISCOUNT!!
That DISCOUNT also applies to PayPal GIFT (Fee-Free), Check, and Money Order payments!!
Thank you for visiting. We hope you will find some vintage artifacts here on our site to add to your collection.
We look forward to serving your collecting needs, Ron & Kanae
ARTIFACT:
What we have here is an extremely rare and seldom seen, other than in books and period images, is the circa 1918 Glavvozduhflot, Russian Workers' & Peasants' Red Air Fleet, Bolshevik Pilot Sleeve Badge in Bullion on Velvet. This exquisite badge shows signs of having been, at one time, sewn to a uniform, and it has some light wear to the edges of the velvet, and some lovely patina to the gilt wire bullion of the winged propellor. If only we knew where this badge has been!
By design of the winged propellor, and the shape of the background material, once can see that this Pilot Badge, worn from 1918 in the Russian Civil War through the Polish - Soviet War, is the ancestor Badge of the Pilot Badge of 1925, with its addition of the crossed swords and red star at center, and the change of wing color to silver while the propellor remained gold.
This is the only one of these badges that we have seen in hand. It came from a longtime Russian & Soviet Collector who has one on a Leather Flight Coat (!!!) so he decided to part with this one. It had been in another Private Collection since 2016 and finally as consigned to us here at FTA recently.
Aviation Historian Tod Rathbone presented us with images of similar badges being worn, from obscure Russian books on the subject.
VINTAGE:
Circa 1918.
SIZE:
Approximately: 2-1/2" in height x 3-1/2" in width.
MATERIALS / CONSTRUCTION:
Bullion on wool.
ATTACHMENT:
To be sewn on.
MARKINGS:
N/A.
ITEM NOTES:
This is from a Russian and Soviet Union militaria collection which we will be listing more of over the next few months. CON-RLB-MFJJM10/16 LFEIEX11/20/23 SFJJJX03/04/25
CONDITION:
8- (Very Fine - Excellent): Signs of having been, at one time, sewn to a uniform, with some light wear to the edges of the velvet, and some lovely light to moderate patina to the gilt wire bullion of the winged propellor.
GUARANTEE: As with all my artifacts, this piece is guaranteed to be original, as described.
