Militaria covers the everyday things that came out of military life: the badges and buttons off a uniform, the medals awarded for service, and the postcards sent home.
What holds it together is that every piece belonged to somebody. A medal was pinned on one man, a badge sat on the front of his cap, a postcard was posted home in his own handwriting. Most people come to militaria through a relative who served, and end up researching the person behind the piece as much as collecting it.
Naval postcards make up a large part of what we stock. In the years before the First World War, warships were public news, and photographs of battleships and cruisers were printed as postcards and sold in huge numbers. Plenty of the ships pictured were lost within a few years of the photograph being taken, which is part of the appeal.
Cap badges and uniform buttons are usually collected by regiment. British regiments were amalgamated and renamed a good deal over the last century, so a badge is sometimes the clearest trace left of a unit that no longer exists.
Medals are worth a closer look. British campaign medals are normally named around the rim with the number, rank, name and regiment of the man who received them, which means you can often trace him.
New militaria is added regularly, so it is worth checking back if you do not spot what you are after straight away.
