James – original late 1950s vitreous enamel badge remounted onto a new leather keyfob – collector’s item

NOW SOLD – sorry this keyring has now been sold and can no longer be ordered but has been left on view as one of the rarest keyfob badges which we have ever listed .

An original James motorcycle keyfob badge which will have been produced in the late 1950s which we have remounted onto a new leather keyfob as can be seen in the photos .

We have just this one keyring with this badge to offer – when it has been sold this listing will be cancelled.

We have run this business for almost 20 years and this is the very first James motorcycle keyfob badge which we have ever listed !!

Prior to receiving this badge we had always assumed that keyrings had never been produced for James motorcycles .

We very rarely describe a remounted badge as being a collector’s item but this badge is so significant that it has to be described as such .

This diminutive little nickel plated badge is in very good condition with translucent red vitreous enamelling .

A couple of relatively unimportant enamel chips on the edge of the badge which can be seen in the enlarged high resolution listing photos .

Produced by Sculthorp of London who specialised in motorcycle keyrings – we would expect that they will have produced just one small run of these keyrings at the time almost all of which ( or indeed all of which ) will have by now have been lost, worn out or simply just discarded .

The only other manufacturer who could have made a James keyring would have been AE Wassell of Birmingham – but if they did then we have never seen one .

The James Cycle Co. was established in Birmingham in 1884 and their first motorcycle ( technically a moped ) was produced in 1902 .

James have the distinction of being the first motorcycle manufacturer to mount a fuel tank on the main cross bar of a machine – an arrangement adopted by almost all manufacturers and still the default mounting to this present day .

James produced several 98cc machines and also the 1954/55 Colonel with a 225cc Villiers single cylinder engine .

This was followed by the James Captains as well as trials and scrambles bikes.

In 1956 they produced the 197cc Captain 200 K7, Cotswold 200 K7C, and Commando 200 K7T .

Our own first motorcycle was a 197cc James Captain which was used in a farmer’s field as we were far too young for the road !

The price of this keyring ( hardly the price of a decent meal + wine for two ) reflects the rarity of this badge and the premium we had to pay in order to put such a scarce item into stock .

The keyring in the photos is the actual one which you will receive – this badge is British motorcycling history . SMOSO 005211225