Please help identify an old British boxing belt

[Kev]

Hi everyone. I was given a set of jewels from an old boxing belt over 20 years ago and have been trying to find out what they are ever since.

I was given them by a great aunt who was given them by her mum.
The story goes that the owner of the belt used to visit her in the 1920's and gave her the belt as a token of appreciation for her kindness over the years.
She never knew his real name. She guessed that he was middle-aged to elderly at the time.

My great aunt thought it was a Lonsdale belt but it doesn't look like any pictures I've seen of them.

The belt was originally white leather with blue satin backing but that part was lost in India (this belt has really travelled).
Now I have the jewels and I live in Australia and I'm hoping that all the boxing experts on this forum can help me figure out what they are from.
You can see a picture of the jewels below (hopefully)

Any help identifying this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Kev

[barry]

If it is real diamonds, real rubies and real gold then I would about bet money that it was an appreciation belt that some rich individual, or some rich company had made for a certain favorite fighter of theirs. It doesn't look like any regional, world, or local titles that I have ever seen, but I'll see if I can locate anything about it.

[Mimmy]

What did the British Empire belt look like?

[barry]

I know it's not the Lonsdale title and I'm pretty sure that it isn't the British Empire as I think that title is just mainly silver and possibly gold, but I may be wrong.

[Kev]

Thanks to everyone that has looked and posted.
I'm still hoping to figure this mystery out. Any ideas and suggestions gratefully received.

Kev

[jimglen]

I don't believe those set of jewels belong to any Belt,
they look more like necklaces and brooches, note the matching 'necklace' looking pieces have two small holes at the top, a mounting on a belt would be much more secure - also very feminine looking...

if it is at all related to Boxing, I'd say it was more in the way of a consolation prize (?). can't rightly say though.

over on the "ootp championship boxing" (game) site, they have a whole picture thread dedicated to Championship Belts, maybe you'll find your answer there, or someone might be able to help you?

good luck and let us know what you find.
Jim.

[TheRiverCityHippy]

yeah if it does have any relation to boxing i`d hazard a guess along the same lines as barry (for example the police gazette making a belt for sullivan.)
in the past rich patrons used to get ornamental belts made for particularly successfull boxers who may have made them a few bob.
its hard to judge scale but if those pieces are fairly large and if those jewels are genuine it looks like it would be worth a good few bob.
`IF` it was related to boxing i`d have to guess it would be someone fairly high profile to warrant that type of jewellry.
maybe a bareknuckler?

[robert.snell1]

if you take them to a jeweler he should be able to identify the items in terms of time and maker from the hallmarks on the reverse side of the items.

[Andy Mac]

Going along the lines of the man visiting the lady in the 20's and him being middle aged to elderly, I'd go along with Barry's observation. Maybe a rich patron, giving one of his fighters a career achievement gift.

[Kev]

Hi everyone that posted.
Thank you again for the insightful advice.

To give you an idea of scale the large piece is approx 9cm wide and 8cm tall.
The two smaller pieces are about 7cm tall and 5cm wide.

Hope that helps figure out what they are.

Kev

[Kev]

Hi again

Assuming that the timeframe for the boxer that presumably won/received this belt is somewhere around 1900, is there somewhere I could find a short list of British boxers that might be good candidates?

Thanks for all the help so far

[barry]

Barry Hugman has lists of British, Commonwealth and European champions in the British record books that he publishes every year, which that would be a good place to start.

After getting all the champions names you can then go through their records and check out opponents records and look for any notes stating that they were given a title of some sort.

A couple of good publications to go through would be the UK publications Boxing News, which started in 1909 and Mirror of Life and Boxing World, which I am not certain exactly when they started, but it was an early publication. You might also want to check into an old publication called "Famous Fights" and lastly the "National Police Gazette."

All of these would be very difficult to come by in hard copy unless your local library can obtain microfilm of the papers through interlibrary loan, which should not be a problem, that is as long as the first three mentioned were in fact put on microfilm, which I do not know. I know that the National Police Gazette has microfilm and you can also gain access to that publication through Pro Quest, but they only have the paper up to the beginning of 1907.

[robert.snell1]

nice one barry, as ever a veritable font of information. I feel that this was a gift of some sort and the items were not made for the belt but were a set of items someone donated. must have been quite special as they do look good quality. has a price been established on them ?

[barry]

I think that you are probably right Rob and I to am pretty interested in hearing what it's actual story turns out to be.

[jimglen]

that's what I said Rob, Barry, some sort of "consolation prize" either for a particular victory or some sort of recognition and honour!

[barry]

Were there many regional titles around that time in the UK?

[BoxBuzz]

Were there many regional titles around that time in the UK?

barry how long before your drafted to sit next to Bert Sugar and feed him the facts before he answers a question? Or maybe off stage giving him the info into his earpiece from a remote location? Seems like the perfect gig for you.....Make sure you demand top dollar if your job is to make him look good.