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Bobbin' Along - History of the Charlton Badge Part 1

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    I've been going since 1961 and all I can say to that piece is "well feck me. " great article though.
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    Splendid stuff!
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    Apologies to Barnie, who asked me to come up with something funny ;-)
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    Top stuff Stig, did the trust reward you with a golden anorak?
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    Cheers Aburdistan, no I've got my own anorak thanks. And my own pencil, paper, tartan blanket and flask.
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    A fascinating article, Stig, packed with interesting detail. I had assumed the badge and the nickname were both much older inventions, partly because to me it would be inconceivable to change them. I especially like our sword, with the thrusting strength of the vertical blade (almost phallic!) offset by the curved flourish of the cross-guard.
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    Great article, well done stig I really enjoyed reading that. I also think the owners should give you two 5 guinea tickets for your efforts
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    excellent article ... cheers
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    Excellent article. I guess the final question is why we chose the sword from the City of London crest? It's not as if we're the official club of the square mile...

    image
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    Looking forward to part 2
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    Great article Stig. Very interesting.
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    edited June 2013
    Nice comment on the article.

    "Jon, well done.

    A very interesting and informative article.

    Every good wish to all at the Club for a successful new season.

    Gordon jago
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    Excellent article. I guess the final question is why we chose the sword from the City of London crest? It's not as if we're the official club of the square mile...

    image

    Was it the idea of some City based Addicks to bring the club closer in image to where the money is? And what has happened to City Addicks lately

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    edited June 2013

    Looking forward to part 2

    It's part three that will be the real humdinger ;-)

    Excellent article. I guess the final question is why we chose the sword from the City of London crest? It's not as if we're the official club of the square mile...

    image

    Was it the idea of some City based Addicks to bring the club closer in image to where the money is? And what has happened to City Addicks lately

    I was sure that I'd read something along those lines; that the club wanted to attract new support who worked in the city (how that would have worked I've no idea). When I looked for some evidence of this, the only thing I found was written by me anyway. I could hardly go around quoting myself, so I didn't put it in. If anyone's got any genuine evidence that this is what did or didn't happen, it would be greatly appreciated.
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    Great post Stig - really interesting reading
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    Excellent article. I guess the final question is why we chose the sword from the City of London crest? It's not as if we're the official club of the square mile...

    image

    Was it the idea of some City based Addicks to bring the club closer in image to where the money is? And what has happened to City Addicks lately

    Well if it was the intention, it didn't work as we but got bugger all money from the square mile for 30 years after the new badge was produced!
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    @stig 's article was more detailed and accurate 
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    edited November 2022
    Excellent article. I guess the final question is why we chose the sword from the City of London crest? It's not as if we're the official club of the square mile...
    a story I’ve posted before elsewhere about a night out in town which batted on and ended up in a hostelry in south london. Getting home much later I realised I’d lost a cufflink, one of a pair with the City shield with sword. A few days later it made its way back to me as it was assumed it was a ‘Charlton’ cufflink and must have been mine because the regulars were mostly millwall fans.
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    edited November 2022
    Excellent article. I guess the final question is why we chose the sword from the City of London crest? It's not as if we're the official club of the square mile...
    a story I’ve posted before elsewhere about a night out in town which batted on and ended up in a hostelry in south london. Getting home much later I realised I’d lost a cufflink, one of a pair with the City shield with sword. A few days later it made its way back to me as it was assumed it was a ‘Charlton’ cufflink and must have been mine because the regulars were mostly millwall fans.
    Whilst I love our badge because I've grown up with it, in hindsight it's a shame we didn't just take the whole of the central shield with the sword in the top left quadrant - very smart and very marketable!
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    If you know your ‘istory: Charlton Athletic’s Badge

    Part 3 - Making Comparisons

    What did you do over the summer?  Maybe you watched some cricket, or did the garden or perhaps if time and money allowed you headed south in search of one of more of the fabled 4S's.  Me?  I spent the summer looking at every football badge in the world, in order to see just how unique the Charlton badge is and to see if my belief that it is the best badge in football is correct.  Have I really looked at every badge in the world?  Well, OK probably not, but I have looked at over 12,000 of them so I do feel that I've done enough research to comment.

    Swords of a Thousand Men:

    As emblems go for football teams, the sword is not a very common one.  If it's common you want, you need to go looking for eagles and lions which it seems are latched onto be any club that's devoid of originality or imagination; there are literally thousands of them.  Swords however have quite a low take up.  I found just 120 other clubs using sword emblems.  Of these, over a third come from England, although when you discount the clubs of Essex and Middlesex who almost without fail seem to incorporate the three seaxes that represent those counties, the number drops considerably.  Other countries where the sword is used include Spain, USA and Australia.

    Different parts of the world tend to use sword images in different ways.  In Europe they are  mostly used, as in the case of Charlton, to draw a link with the coat of arms of the city or town a club comes from.  In the New World they are used to add some cut, thrust and excitement and to stress the fighting spirit of club, typically with no reference to any history.  In developing countries, swords are used mainly by police or army teams where the sword is used to signify force, power or control.

    The biggest clubs to have swords on their badges are AEK Athens and FC Porto.  However their swords are tiny and are not a major part of the design.  The biggest clubs with prominent swords are ourselves and Sheffield United.

    Without a doubt, the Charlton sword is the most prominent of all the badge designs I've seen.  Many, if not most, badge designs featuring swords use it as part of a bigger design, often showing it carried by a knight, a pirate or a king.  Few use the sword as the main feature.  In many instances the sword is shown as part of a crossed pair rather than a single item.

    You Spin Me Round:

    The second element in Charlton's badge is the roundel.  In numerical terms, the circle is probably second only to the shield in terms of overall badge shape.  And putting circles within circles is a very easy way to get a visually appealing design as well as establishing some gestalt closure to the image.  What's striking is that when a group of badges with roundels are seen together they look much more congruent than a group of badges with swords.

    Hello, I Love You, Won't You Tell Me Your Name:

    The third and final element is the name.  The vast majority of football clubs take their name from the place they originate from.  Most put their name on their badge. However given the vast number of place names and the scope for different second names, almost all clubs have monikas that are quite unique.  There is a Charlton Rovers near Cheltenham, there used to be a Charlton United in Oxfordshire, and for a five month period in 1905 the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich used to boast two clubs called Charlton Athletic.  But names that similar are generally few and far between. On an international level, top marks to this Peruvian [Athletico Chalaco] side for having a name closest to Charlton.

    An End Has To Start:

    Putting the elements together, the club with the badge closest to ours is probably Sheffield Utd.  Even that feels quite different though with the colour reversal on the roundel, the twin blades and the fact that theirs is sullied by a white rose. Even the swords on their one look quite alien compared to our traditional sword.  Chinese club Chengdu have a badge that's the dead spit of The Blade's badge.  In fairness though, this was because the Chinese club was once run as a franchise of the Yorkshire one.

    I started out this article with questions about the uniqueness and the quality of the Charlton badge.  Having looked at so many thousands of other badges, I can safely say that there is no other quite like it.  There are other badges that share certain elements, but none is quite the same, and none looks as good either. 

    One  thing that did strike me though as I looked at all those thousands of badges, was how there seemed to be certain design traits that are peculiar to different countries and regions.  For example, South American clubs nearly all go for a shield shape and usually decorate it with stripes. Spanish clubs frequently go for the regal look whilst cramming every little detail they can think of into the design. Whilst in Croatia, a badge isn't a badge if it isn't decorated with the gingham-kitchen style check pattern that they love so much. African badges tend to be tiny (at least on the internet) with poor quality designs and in South Korea nothing is more popular than a Pokemon-style cartoon to represent a club's history and traditions.  So to end with, just for a bit of fun, here's how the Charlton badge might have looked if we'd graced a league in another land.  I'm so glad we've got the badge we have.

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    Anybody know why the TM was dropped ?
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    Earliest know CAFC badge used on the 1921 handbook but nowhere else.

    I suspect this was created by the printers rather than being an official badge used by the club.
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