Golly Variations.
I collect variations in designs and also variations
in backstamps ( the makers stamp on the back ). The variations in design on the front of
the brooches are the easiest to show.
Some of these variations seem to be intentional and others are obvious accidents.
Some of the little
Gollies just evolved. This is shown with the Standard brooches to the left.
A well known 'one off' is this 1960 experimental brooch called a
Pro-Pat. There was only a skater and a Standard made this way and it was a very limited
run. The colour is put onto the badge using coloured foil which is then given a
transparent plastic coating. These just look so strange next to the more normal 1950s and
1960's ranges of badges. These brooches ( right ) are the commonly known Golly brooches
that were available in the 1950's and 1960's. As you can see, the Pro Pat is the same
basic design as the others available at this time ( picture on the right ).
I also have a
Brownie from the 1990s (below far left) which has a mis-colouring. The stamping is fine
but the colours are in the wrong place for the neckerchief. There is also no green or
yellow in the poor little girl on the left. The Brownie on the right is how she should
appear. Also , below are two Scouts from the 1970s. The one on the right is correct and
just how he should be.
The one on the left has
enamel missing from all except the yellow and black areas. The effect of bobbling on the
bare metal is how it actually is below the surface of the enamel. The enamel on these
areas would have coloured the metal slightly but it was never applied. Very unusual and a
brooch that actually seems to glow.
Many other Golly brooches have variations and mistakes and ,to me, these are just as collectible as totally different brooches.
Variations are consistent difference in a brooch where other occurrences can be found. The main ones are all catalogued in the 'Colin Dodd's Golly Checklist'. This is also a great book for finding out what has been produced by Robertson's
Mistakes are the
mis-stamping, thick cut and wrong/missing colouring. My favorite is shown here. It
is a 1980s Engine driver. The one
on the right is how it should appear and the one on the left is a mess. Missing colours
and a streak of blue and red acrylic just make it a complete disaster. Purist collectors
would miss out on this. They demand immaculate versions of badges. To me this brooch is
wonderful because it is purely unique. OK, I lied a bit. The one on the right is an
all-yellow-coupling brooch which is rarer. In the normal brooch the centre of the yellow
coupling (front, middle of the engine ) is green. I just thought I'd use my 'posh' one in
the picture. :-)
An example of how a collection can increase in number, with the inclusion of variations and defects, is shown in this picture.
This range was available from
1989 to 1993. It consists of 21 different designs ( seen in the top 3 rows ). These all
have no stamping on the back of the brooch.
The next 3 rows are the identical 21 designs but this time they have the Robertson's backstamp on the back. Unfortunately I have no way of displaying the front and back of a brooch.
The bottom 2 rows are variations which include the Baseball player with yellow heel, Astronaut with eyes the other way and a Surfer with a blue hand. I have recently changed this part of the collection but , from a range of 21 , I now have 55 brooches.... And I haven't quite finished getting all the variations that I know of...there may also be more mis-stamped or thick-cut ones around too..:-)
These
1980s brooches are all different from the 'usual' ones in quite a major way.
They are all pressed out of a metal that is very silver in colour.
These have the proper Robertson's stamp on them and are exactly the same as the usual ones except for the metal being very silver.
The guitarist is the most commonly reported in the silver metal but all these others are a nice extra bit to my 1980s range
