Look Familiar?
Posted in Patch Collecting by John E. Pannell on September 6th, 2008 at 5:02 am 
Bob White 87 eX1973
Recently I was identifying some patches for a friend and saw some designs that were very familiar to me. One of these is pictured to the left. I knew I have seen this design and could remember at least a couple of other examples. This time there’s a simple explanation for this.
Inspired and common patch designs aren’t all that unusual. This is at least the fourth time I have written about patches like this. Previous posts on this topic include:
- Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
- Peculiarly Similar Patches?
- Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery (II)
In the 1970s1 there was a BSA stock patch design that featured a “fancy dancer”. This proved to be popular with Order of the Arrow lodges at the time.
I now know of at least five different lodges that have used this design on six different patches. The first is at the top of this post. Here are the other five patches:
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UPDATE 9/11/2008: Add the 117 eX1966 to this list. Also add the Camp O’Hara patch, a “black camp” that used to operate in the Coastal Empire Council, courtesy of Jeff Cook. It’s interesting that the Camp O’Hara patch seems to be the only “twill” with this design so far.
UPDATE 9/13/2008: Thanks to Chris Jensen for pointing out the 218 eX1974-1, added to the list below. There are also a couple of others I was told about which I will add when I have images.
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 Owasippe 7 Cahokia Chapter eX1965 |
 Occoneechee 104 eX1973-3 (2) |
 Croatan 117 eX1966 |
|
 Teetonkah 206 eX1979-1 |
 Cuwe 218 eX1974-1 |
 Karankawa 307 X1 |
|
 Tatokainyanka 356 X5 |
 Kola 464 1973 Spring Service (unlisted) |
 Menawngihella 550 X2 |
|
 Camp O'Hara Patch |
There are other similar dancer designs that have been used by multiple lodges. I may highlight those at a later time.
If you know of any other patches using this specific design, please comment below.
Notes:
1. Greg Grimes pointed out the 307 X1 after this post was published. As this patch dates from 1965, this stock design was used much earlier than I had originally thought.
2. Blue Book has also listed this Occoneechee as an issue of an “Opera Ante” chapter. My site followed Blue Book in this as I use the Blue Book database without revision. This was not correct and there has never been such a chapter in this lodge.
“Opera Ante Plumis” roughly translates as “work before feathers”, at least that’s what was intended. The patch was actually issued for a lodge event. It is now (also) more correctly listed as eX1973-3.
Just listed: EBay # 200252574345. Camp Mahonegon “STAFF”. Same design!
….and here is anotherone I just ran across on eBay:
KARANKAWA Lodge 307 1965 20th ANN TEXAS
@ Greg Grimes: That’s the 307 X1. I just added this to the main body of post… Thanks…
camp o’hara “black camp” patch coastal empire council
[...] just added two more images to my recent post entitled “Look Familiar?“. One is the eX1966 from Croatan [...]
This design was also used by the Koshari Indian dancer of Colorado
http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-early-Boy-Scout-CAMP-COUNCIL-PATCHES_W0QQitemZ160284295785QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item160284295785&_trkparms=39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A1|240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
Another Camp Siouan 1973 in Ebay auction 160284295785
Update 10/8/08:
While working on stuff earlier today I noticed the eX1965 from the Cahokia Chapter of Owasippe 7 and added its image to this post.
[...] Look Familiar? “In things to be seen at once, much variety makes confusion, another vice of beauty. In things that are not seen at once, and have no respect one to another, great variety is commendable, provided this variety transgress not the rules of optics and geometry.” Sir Christopoher Wren Permalink This Post Viewed 1 Times [...]
Update 10/14/08:
Robert Mathis pointed out the 1973 Spring Service patch from Kola 464 (currently unlisted in Blue Book). It’s been added to this post, too.