Post by Belle_Deviante on Apr 4, 2018 10:52:16 GMT
So I have been doing research on the badge left behind in the neighbor's yard after the first EARONS attack in Concord, CA. I have read that this was anything from a security badge, law enforcement to he just dropped it to throw off the investigation. In any event here is what I have gathered:
The pictograph within the center of the badge is a state seal. This would reflect a division withing the state.
Although the waters were described in 1849 as being "of the Sacramento" and the mountains in the background as being "the snow-clad peaks of the Sierra Nevada," other, very early descriptions referred to the body of water as San Francisco Bay In fact, in a letter to Lyon dated two days before the seal was approved by the convention, Garnett described the landscape as a "view of the Bay of San Francisco and its vessels and in 1899, Garnett's brother referred to the mountain as Mount Diablo,which would back up Robert's San Francisco Bay view.
In 1928, due to the number of incorrect details that had crept into the seal over the years (some pointed out as early as 1914, state printer Carroll H. Smith was authorized to prepare a new and correct seal. This seal was drawn by Los Angeles heraldic artist Marc J. Rowe who, among other corrections, narrowed the growing break in the mountains so that it appeared to be the Sacramento River, "fringed by snow-capped Sierra, and not an arm of San Francisco Bay, as the old seal made it appear". San Franciscans considered this change to be "a slight on their city in favor of Los Angeles, despite the fact that Rowe's version was not at all to be interpreted as representing the City of Angels. His design was not adopted as the official seal, although it was used by the State Printing Office. However, just nine years later, the 1937 standardized seal once again featured a widened gap of Golden Gate proportions, although it did keep Rowe's snow-capped Sierra Nevada that had replaced the barren foothills of previous editions of the seal. Both features remain to this day.
The 1937 standardization came about when state employees, wishing to print the seal on blotters for the State Fair, could not find any official design of the seal. This prompted a new law (Statutes of California, 1937, chapter 380), which "established for the first time a definite pictured design with which the master die was 'substantially' to conform, and at the same time established the legality of all previous seals which were essentially the same as this one.
The number of stars represents the district/dept of the state of Ca. There are various numbers of stars on various seals. But since I have been unable to obtain clear imagery of the badge, I cannot count the amount of stars on the seal of the badge.
For example:
Errors in the Seal
An early 1900s envelope, reportedly sent by the state to a newspaper editor, bore a copy of the seal missing the bear.
In 1982, after a year-long probe, a $300,000-plus counterfeiting ring was busted in Los Angeles by Department of Motor Vehicles agents. The counterfeiters had been producing false pink slips and other identity papers using a fraudulent seal. The mistake the counterfeiters made that first tipped off investigators was the misspelling of "Seal" as "Seat."[60] The possibility of the use of fraudulent seals for unscrupulous gain had been discussed in the press as early as 1878.
This was followed in 1988 by the discovery that on a number of documents printed by the state printing office, Minerva's face had taken on the look of Snoopy, the beagle of Peanuts cartoon fame. The error was first discovered in the Department of Corrections newsletter, printed by prison labor, and so it was first suspected to be a prank by the inmates. It was later revealed that the source of the error was a worn printing plate, and so was not intentional.
While most errors on the seal are unintentional, at least one was done "on porpoise": the staff of Assemblyman Jerry Lewis once ordered a birthday cake for their boss with a California seal on it, but it was "the kind that has flippers, swims in the ocean and eats fish."
Pehaps this was a counterfit badge, not with the noted errors above but still counterfit?
Examples of the Seal
Sacramento
The seal can be seen in its various incarnations near the entrances of a number of state buildings in downtown Sacramento, including the State Capitol (as well as several inside of the Capitol, including an 1854 carving and a 1908 stained glass "sky" light), Stanley Mosk Library and Courts I (within the tympanum at 914 Capitol Mall), Department of Rehabilitation (721 Capitol Mall, not to be confused the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation), State Personnel Board (801 Capitol Mall), Employment Development Department (722/800 Capitol Mall), Resources Agency (1416 Ninth Street), Secretary of State (1500 Eleventh Street), CalTrans (1121 O Street), Office of the State Fire Marshal (1131 S Street), and the Department of Motor Vehicles (2415 First Avenue). A hand-painted seal which used to be on display at the old Oakland State Building (1111 Jackson Street) until its closure following the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 can today be seen just within the front entrance of the state building at 1304 O Street, Sacramento. In West Sacramento, on the opposite shore of the Sacramento River from Old Sacramento, near the entrance to the headquarters of the California Department of General Services in the distinctive Ziggurat building, is another seal. Near the base of the James W. Marshall monument at Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park in nearby Coloma, can be found an artistic rendition of the seal from 1890.
A selection of seals found around Sacramento
upload image
San Francisco Bay Area
It can also be seen in mosaic on the second floor of San Francisco's Ferry Building, which opened in 1898. Three unusual seals can be seen at the San Francisco Civic Center. The 1894 James Lick Pioneer Monument features a seal where Minerva and the bear have "escaped" the seal and are sculpted in the round, leaving the remaining elements on Minerva's shield in the space normally occupied only by the face of Medusa. So large that it was shipped via oyster shell barge from the artists' studio (a dairy barn) in Petaluma, a 1500-pound fiberglass seal hangs above the entrance to the California Public Utilities Commission building.[64] A bright golden seal is on display in the auditorium of the Hiram Johnson State Building. There are two more, less spectacularly colored seals at the north and south entrances to that building. Joined by the seals of other western states, the seal of California hangs above one of the elevators in the lobby of the Hearst Building at Third and Market streets. A seal can also be found at Metropolitan Barber Shop, at 1018 Bush Street.
Around the Bay Area, other seals can be found at the Native Sons of the Golden West Parlor No. 62 in Napa (a six-foot wide stained glass), the historic plaza in Sonoma on the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt monument (1914), the Elihu M Harris State Office Building in Oakland, the San Mateo County History Museum in Redwood City (a mosaic dating to 1910), the Circle of Palms Plaza in San Jose, the site of California's first state capitol, and in front of Colton Hall in Monterey, the site of the 1849 Constitutional Convention. Nearby is a 1957 monument to Robert S. Garnett which includes the seal.
A selection of seals found around the San Francisco Bay Area
Southern California
A large bronze seal, installed in 1939, was for many years located in front of the First Street entrance to the old State Building in Los Angeles until the structure was torn down in the 1970s.[19] The seal in the atrium of the Ronald Reagan State Building in Los Angeles is most likely this seal. Also in downtown Los Angeles, at the Los Angeles County Law Library, a large Seal of California is joined by others representing the various court districts of the area. At the 1934 California State Fair, Los Angeles-based Helms Bakery won the gold medal for the best loaf of bread, topping 471 other entries.[65] Large reproductions of this medal, showing the seal on one side, can be seen on the exterior of all three former locations in Culver City, Montebello, and San Bernardino. As part of his 1932 mural on the ceiling of the Fluor Gallery of the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, artist Martin Syvertsen included a seal. Another seal is attached to the Family Law Court in Riverside.
Above the bench in Courtroom #1 of the San Diego Superior Court hangs a stained glass seal. This was one of forty-two state seals created in 1889 (one for each state then in the Union) by artist John Mallon for the courthouse at the time and saved from oblivion in 1978 by civic-minded San Diegans (the courthouse had been torn down in 1959, and the seals placed in storage).[66] Not far from the Superior Court, just outside the entrance doors to the old central library location at 850 E Street, is another seal. Constructed as part of the Panama–California Exposition, held in San Diego's Balboa Park from 1915 to 1917, the California Building features a stylized seal. A more standardized seal appears nearby, above the entrance to the San Diego Museum of Art. To celebrate the 1935-1936 California Pacific International Exposition, also held in Balboa Park, the United States Mint issued a commemorative half-dollar piece featuring a modified seal on the obverse. In 1907, the Native Daughters of the Golden West presented a large tablet to the officers and crew of the armored cruiser USS California (ACR-6). Both the commemorative coin and the tablet were designed by sculptor Robert Ingersoll Aitken, thus explaining the similarities among the two.
A selection of seals found around southern California
Other uses of the Seal
In 1862, the California Legislature created the California State Normal School (now San Jose State University), and bestowed its Great Seal upon the school. Although the university's version of the Seal still graces its Tower Hall and several other buildings on the San Jose State campus, its fate as the school's official Seal is unclear. In recent years the school has also used a different seal depicting its Tower Hall building. The city of Eureka, California, uses the same seal, being the only U.S. location to use the state seal as its seal.[70] The city's name identically matches California's motto. Minerva and the bear appear on the seal of the city of Long Beach. The Governor's Flag features a modified seal at its center.[71] The California Highway Patrol uses a modified state seal on its patch, replacing the wheat and grape vine with a cactus and adding a setting sun, and a seal as part of its shield that is nearly identical to the actual seal. Most state law enforcement agencies, along with many local and county agencies, display the state seal on their badges. A fictionalized version of the seal, missing the words "California" and "Eureka", appeared on officers' shoulder patches used for the television series Highway Patrol, which, although filmed in southern California, was set in an unnamed western state. Another made-for-television seal, missing the bear and several ships, and with a wandering island, was used for an episode of the CBS series The Mentalist[72] Above Judge Wright's head in the NBC comedy Bad Judge hung an altered seal, missing the ships and a good number of stars.
In 1969, the appearance of the seal on state-owned cars parked in unexpected places was used by concerned Californians to identify public vehicles, financed by taxpayers, being used for non-official duties. Observed examples included a vehicle parked at a Lake Tahoe casino and "a man, woman, and several children piling out of a state owned car and into a movie theatre at 3 p.m."[74]
As the "signature" of California, the seal has also been used for less-than-solemn purposes, including poking fun at the state's problems. In 1967, soon after Ronald Reagan's inauguration as governor, the Sacramento Bee ran an editorial cartoon showing an overweight Minerva and bear, representing bloated state government, doing toe-touching exercises as Reagan, dressed as an athletics coach, calls out, "Squeeze, Cut, Trim -- Squeeze, Cut, Trim."[75] In 2001, the Oakland Tribune printed a letter to the editor with a light-hearted suggestion of new imagery for the seal. The writer proposed replacing the sailing ships with Japanese car carriers, the wheat and grape vine with Central Valley subdivisions, obscuring the Sierra Nevada with smog, and giving California a new motto more appropriate for the time: "I have lost it."[76] Ross Mayfield, political cartoonist of the Santa Maria Sun, lampooned California's economic situation with his "The New State Seal for the Great Bankrupt State of California" cartoon, which portrayed a worried Minerva holding signs that read "Send Money" and "Need Cash," the miner in his (literal and figurative) hole with a "We're In Too Deep" sign, and the ships flying "Bail Us Out" and "We're Sinking" banners.[77] A version of the seal with Conan the Barbarian in the place of Minerva and California spelled phonetically as 'Kahlifoania' made the rounds soon after Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor in 2003.
Government seals of California
POSSIBLE MANUFACTURER LIST:
- Sacramento: State Printing Office
- California Blue Book
- Department of Corrections / State inmates
Clearly this was a badge used for state representation. Since no relative badges are to be found thus far, it possibly was a relative of his or manufactured before 1970?
Just some observations based on what I have learned about the seal engraved within the badge.
contributing article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Seal_of_California
