Union Jack – original vintage 1960s vitreous enamel badge by Heath Machin & Co. remounted onto a new leather keyfob in vintage ‘dark Havana’ straw grain leather

This keyring has an original vintage vitreous enamel Union Jack keyfob badge which will have been produced in the 1960s in Walsall, England which we have remounted onto a new leather keyfob in vintage ‘dark Havana’ straw grain leather.

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

You are unlikely to be able to buy a more ‘ BRITISH ‘ keyring than this one ……………The Union Jack keyfob badge mounted onto a leather as British as Roast Beef and produced in Northampton right in the middle of Britain !

We do have just two 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 individually laid by hand 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 .

Please note :- the other two badges may be mounted onto different leather to the leather used for this keyring when we list them .

We originally had just a few of these lovely ‘old school’ vitreous enamel Union Jack badges which we offered remounted onto our teardrop keyfobs – they all soon sold .

Now we have received an additional three badges which we are offering remounted one by one as each one is slightly different .

We have remounted the badge in this listing onto one of our individually hand cut & hand stitched teardrop keyfobs in ‘ dark Havana ‘ straw grain leather as can be seen in the photos ( a full description of this special leather follows further down )

The leather keyfob has an enhanced degree of internal ‘plumping’ achieved by stitching an additional leather panel within the keyfob – to give the keyfob additional dimension & interest .

This particular nickel plated badge mounted onto this keyfob is in absolutely mint condition with jewellery quality vitreous enamel in solid cobalt blue and translucent red enamel – British made vitreous enamel keyfob badges never surpassed the lovely quality of these badges .

Beneath the translucent red enamel can be seen the stippled texture of the ground below – simply stunning quality .

This badge was made at a time when Great Britain was leading the world in car production and many overseas customers would have been proud to have had this Union Jack badge on the keyring of their car which had been made in England – especially enthusiast’s cars such as Austin Healey, Jaguar & Triumph which sold to a huge export market .

These badges were produced by Heath Machin of Walsall, England in the 1960s .

Heath Machin produced their own ranges of automotive keyrings and also mounted badges for others ( like Melsom Products Ltd of Birmingham ) onto leather keyfobs as they were predominantly a leather works .

Bud Marston describes examples of these Union Jack keyfob badges in his major work ‘Vintage Jaguar Keyrings’ featured at the beginning of our Jaguar section here in this website shop .

We cannot improve on Bud’s description of these badges which we quote here ( with Bud’s permission of course ! ) …………….

” Many such talismans accompanied their proud owners down the long and winding roads of yesteryear and for that reason deserve honourable mention alongside their more prominent relatives ”

By ‘prominent relatives’ Bud was of course making reference to Jaguar keyrings which were his main subject .

This straw grain leather in dark Havana finish was a mainstay of saddlers the length & breadth of The British Isles at a time when natural materials were of paramount importance for producing different products.