May i just add, that the vast majority of makers:• Did not make the pin plate themselves, they were ordered through makers like Distel, Hüttemann, Deumer etc.. (you can see their ads in most of the UM announcement papers, and in Deumers catalogs you can see his sales ads for Personalized pin plates, pins etc)
• Used many different kinds of attachments at the same time/period on the same badges
• Used what they had, or what they could get and never used the same pin plate from 1920-1945
• Lots of the time had pin plates tailor-ordered with their logo/details on, and had them attached by someone else, and in lots of cases would have had nothing to do with the actual making of that badge, and certainly nothing to do with the attachment.
So i have to add:• Whilst some makers did use "similar" attachments for a long time, it is still impossible to judge any badge/maker/era by looking only at the attachment.
Not forgetting:• An attachment can be replaced in 10 minutes in such a fashion that nobody could tell if it was there from 1938 or from 2011. It is therefore an obsolete part of the item, and cannot be used in any way to determine anything.
And ending with:• The early fakers used the exact same attachments, and in some cases, especially this "oval" fake pin plate that is mentioned, it was used before 1945 and is still used to this very day..
Conclusion:• It is not humanly possible to connect Maker-to-attachment in any way that would enable us to determine any sort of authenticity, or place any specific time frame on an item with certainty. Its a wives tale, a Myth and most certainly not something that any collector should pay the slightest attention to.
Therefore:• It is senseless and futile to judge any badge by the attachment.
I am aware that many collectors
claim to know which maker made their Infantrie Strumabzeichen and many other TR items just because of the attachment, needle bar, clasp, pin, pinplate style/form/shape/size etc .. they are though, all terribly wrong and confused individuals.