Jaguar – original 1960s Manhattan vitreous enamel chequerboard growler badge with slight flaw remounted onto a new leather keyfob

An original vintage Jaguar keyfob badge which will have been produced in the 1960s which we have remounted onto a new leather keyfob as can be seen in the photos .

We do have just a few more of these badges to offer remounted onto new leather keyfobs at a later stage when this keyring has been sold – in the 1960s the vitreous enamel was generally 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 .

We have listed and sold several of these original badges remounted onto new leather keyfobs over the years .

The badge on this particular keyring has the growler’s features glowing in bright red translucent vitreous enamel ……….but the growler’s right hand eye socket ( left hand as you view it ) has very little enamel .

This ‘ flaw’ will have been there since the badge was made in the 1960s and is not particularly noticeable when the badge is viewed at life size but can be seen in the enlarged high resolution listing photos – nevertheless we have priced this keyring at a useful saving over our usual standard price for this keyring .

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

Please note that we are also currently listing a much more recently produced ( 1990s) keyring with a similar badge marked ‘ Windsor’ ( unless now sold ) 

That keyring could have been produced by Manhattan as a keyring to commemorate 30 years of Jaguar keyrings – with the chequerboard badge being the first & last badge produced.

Over the years we have seen just 2 examples of that later keyring – so very few can have been produced in the 1990s .

The badge mounted onto the keyring in this listing was produced in the 1960s by the very well known Manhattan Co. of Birmingham.

Several of these came to us some years ago – we do not think that they were ever originally mounted onto leather keyfobs .

The badges are in hand laid vitreous enamel and feature the iconic Jaguar ‘Growler’ upon a black & white chequerboard ground .

Being hand laid – each badge is slightly different – they were not produced with the perfect precision of modern resin based enamel badges .

After 50 years in storage the nickel plating had dulled and we had the badges re-polished .

We have remounted this badge onto a new individually hand stitched keyfob in ‘vintage’ full grain black leather as can be seen in the photos .

The chequerboard design of these badges carried forward to represent Jaguar E-type and it is thought that these badges will have been produced in the time slot between Jaguar XK150 and the first E-type.

In his ‘Vintage Jaguar Keyrings’ book featured at the beginning of our Jaguar section in this website shop, Bud Marston describes these badges as ‘Jaguar flat growler checkerboard ‘ .

By ‘flat growler’ he means that the Jaguar emblem is not in raised 3D as it is in many vintage Jaguar badges .

Bud dates the badges as dating from the early 1960s and does state that they were never issued – he carries on to say ‘ Why Manhattan decided against marketing such appealing badges remains uncertain ‘

A superb Jaguar keyring with an historically important original Jaguar keyfob badge .

The keyring in the photos is the actual one which you will receive .