1884 James G. Blaine and Logan Enameled Shield Campaign Badge DeWitt JGB 1884-39 Brass

An 1884 Republican campaign badge for James G. Blaine and John A. Logan, brass with enamel in the form of an American shield, cataloged as DeWitt JGB 1884-39. The shield was the default patriotic shape of the period, and enameling it in color was the expensive way to make one. That is the appeal of the piece and also its weakness: enamel on brass chips, and the survival rate for these is nothing like the rate for plain struck metal. Blaine had wanted the nomination since 1876 and finally took it at Chicago on the fourth ballot. The party promptly split over him. He carried eighteen states to Cleveland's twenty and lost.