Featured Hermes sweetheart brooch

Delving into my limited knowledge of mythology and who had winged feet I'm presuming this is meant to be Hermes and the globe represents travel?. So a sweetheart brooch?. Its on a form of plastic which makes me think it's more modern than it's trying to be but the subject matter seems quite dated?
Any insight welcome please

 

According to Google, Hermes carrying a caduceus and standing on the globe is the badge of the Royal Corps of Signals in England.
That, coupled with the fact that your brooch is in a heart form, makes it a pretty safe bet that yours is indeed a sweetheart brooch.

 

Ah, well done!. I googled the globe but didn't come up with that. Thankyou.

 

WWII vintage, in fact, quite possibly theater-made. That lucite may well have been the Perspex windscreen from an airplane. The soldiers/airmen used the shot up removed pieces to make jewelry. The silver accents were made from whatever bits were handy, often coins. I have two made from Aussie coins someone got in the South Pacific or on leave.

 

I didn't know that they used the Perspex for this sort if thing. Dumb question here- Is Perspex reusable by heating and moulding or by carving and polishing?

That is so cool if it's likely that is where this has come from. I wonder what the figure could have been melted down from and if it ever made it back to Blighty to the sweetheart!.
I haven't tested it to see if it's silver but I will.

 

Carving. I find reverse-carved lucite pieces every so often; it was a "thing" in the 40s-60s. I don't think lucite melts like thermoplastic.

 

School of Signals has a museum at Blandford, they used to be a customer of mine, You could ask them.

 

I will do that! Thankyou

 

I just got a reply! After 2.5 years


Thank you for query regarding the sweetheart brooch. I must apologise for the delay in the reply. You are quite right; it does refer to the Royal Corps of Signals. The figure in the centre is Mercury, referred to as ‘Jimmy’ in the Royal Corps of Signals. The brooch was probably made at the end of WW11 as Perspex was created in Australia around 1934 and used instead of glass in windshields for military aircraft and covers for instrument panels.

After WW11 Perspex was fashioned into all kinds of fancy dress goods and decorative objects. The RAF and Royal Navy have clear Perspex fashioned into sweetheart badges using scraps of Perspex from aircraft canopies. There was also commercial production of these badges.

From your email I would think you are correct in thinking it was Perspex taken from scrapped Perspex and it was probably made at the end or towards the end of WW11.

 

What a wonderful reply! Thank you so much for posting. (2 /12 years!)

Debora

 

Amazing that the reply showed up so long after the fact. Blame it on COVID I suppose.