Neale Cummings recently won a 247N0.5 on our favorite auction site, eBay. The neckerchief he won is pictured below.
Ray Gould commented that:
After looking at this auction more carefully, I’ve noticed several things which are different as compared to the example Frank McClain owns in his collection (247 N.05). First, the neckerchief color appears darker (perhaps due to scanning differences but not likely). Second, there are many differences in where the lettering is placed on the neckerchief. Third, there are distinct differences in the thunderbird’s head, center tail feather, and blue coloring in the wing. My belief remains that these were handmade (probably by a single individual) and perhaps given as gifts (Frank mentioned that his example came from a 1960’s #247 chief). The hand-painted theory would account for some of these differences and their rare status. One would suspect that if were used for general membership, they would have surfaced in greater quantity (however, the lodge has long had very small membership numbers and the n/c might have had a short period of use). Who knows…
I had previously written about this Tahgajute issue back in December 2005. A scan of that neckerchief is listed below.
Does anyone know ‘the rest of the story’ on this one?
Due to the seeming handmade nature of this neckerchief, I think I would just add HMVE (Hand Made Varieties Exist) to the existing N0.5 description. Rather than create a variety at least until more examples surface or more is known.
