BMW – original new old stock late 1960s vitreous enamel badge remounted onto a new keyfob in black oak bark tanned leather

We are not licensed by BMW or any of their representatives to reproduce any of the registered BMW designs.

The keyring in this listing has an original vintage BMW keyfob badge which will have been produced around 50 years ago which we have remounted onto a new oak bark tanned leather keyfob as can be seen in the photos .

We are offering just this one keyring with this actual badge – when this keyring has been sold this listing will be cancelled .

We do have several more of these badges to offer at a later stage when this keyring has been sold – in the 1960s the vitreous enamel was hand laid and each badge is slightly different .

In that case we prefer to offer each badge remounted separately and the photos show the actual keyring which you will receive by buying this keyring from this listing .

This vitreous enamel badge is new old stock and will probably never have been mounted onto a leather keyfob at the time.

The badge is in hand laid vitreous enamel and is looking as fresh and bright as the day when it was made .

Being hand laid – the vitreous enamel is not as uniform in depth as more recently produced vitreous enamel badges – this gives a pleasing ‘dimpled’ vintage look to the badge which could never be replicated by modern means. No two badges are identical in appearance.

In the 1960s almost all keyrings for British & European cars were made in England – it was quite an industry .

BMW motor cars were still relatively rare on UK roads at that time with the result that not many BMW keyrings were made compared to the quantities made for British makes of car.

The badge mounted onto this keyring came to us from the closed works of Heath Machin & Co. of Walsall who were keyring manufacturers in their own right and also made leather keyfobs for the very well known Melsom Products Ltd – mounting Melsom’s own badges onto leather keyfobs for them.

This particular badge in this listing will have been made by Heath & Machin for mounting onto their own leather keyfobs.

Heath & Machin & Co. were bought out by new owners in the 1970s and continued to make small leather goods until the 1990s .

We have chosen to offer these badges mounted onto keyfobs in black oak bark tanned leather .

Oak bark tanned leather is prized throughout the world and is a brave survivor of England’s past before the Industrial Revolution transformed the use of natural materials.

There is just one remaining tannery producing oak bark tanned leather in the hills of Devon and still powered by a waterwheel- the site has been a tannery since Roman times.

The oak bark is harvested from coppice oakwoods in the Lake District and contains the necessary tannins which convert the Devon cowhide into this leather.

The tanning method has changed very little over the years and is a long gentle process which protects the natural fibres of the hide and takes anywhere from 12 -24 months to produce each hide which is then hand finished by the curriers.

The resulting leather is prized for it’s quality, durability & finish and is a shining beacon standing out in this 21st Century world where uniformity & bland industrially produced plastic materials have replaced almost everything which went before.