Mercedes Benz – original vintage 1970s? vitreous enamel keychain

An original vitreous enamel badge Mercedes Benz keychain which we would think will have been produced in the 1970s .

This keychain will have been produced earlier than the later copies in modern resin based enamel which Mercedes Benz have issued within the last few years .

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

This keychain is in excellent condition and could well be new old stock having never been used .

The vitreous enamel double badges are connected to the clasp by means of a few links of chain .

The metalwork is gilt plated and this has mellowed over the years in storage as gilt plating usually does .

The badges are in ‘old school ‘ vitreous enamel …………..Mercedes Benz did fairly recently issue modern reproductions of these keychains but these have badges in modern resin based ( plastic ) enamel with a different style of clasp or just a splitring .

The clasp opens as shown to allow key(s) to be attached.

The earliest version of this keychain was made by the well known German badgemaker PREISSLER PFORZHEIM – we have seen photos of one of these and also a few original BMW badges made by this firm.

As the keychain in this listing does not bear this name we would assume that it will not have been made by PREISSLER PFORZHEIM and will date from a later period – most probably 1970s .

John in USA who bought one of these original keychains from us earlier has kindly made contact and has researched these keychains in rather better depth than we have done ……….

He reports that the red star logo featured on this keychain appeared on the horn ring & radiator of a recreation of the 1930 Count Trossi Mercedes Benz car and that the red star logo dates back to 1909 .

Additionally he had studied the keychain which he bought in much better depth than us and had discovered the tiny letters D.B.R. on the clasp which could stand for Daimler Benz Registered meaning that these keychains were an original factory issue – D.B.R. can be seen engraved onto the keychain clasp in the listing photos .

We are most grateful to John for his input and interest and really appreciate contact like this from our customers .

Following on from John’s input another of our USA customers has then taken up the challenge and researched even further :- Amir has noted several detail design differences over the years particularly with regards to the laurel wreath .

Additionally he has discovered that the ‘D.B.R’. stamped on the clasp actually reads ‘ D.P.R. ‘ which he tells us is for patent rights and stands for Deutsches Reichspatent .

Now watch this space to see if anyone else can cast any more light on the subject – but we feel this will be a remote chance !

Our learned customers have filled in the gaps in the descriptions which we have missed and put us to shame !