It should be noted that the Archangel is no doubt the Peak Crested variety of the Dark Bronze Black Winged Gimpel. For sake of clarity and reference, owing to it’s great popularity in the United States the following standard of perfection should be used as a judging guideline. The name Archangel was given to this Gimpel variety by the British. It is a lustrous, upright, slim and racy type of pigeon.

Head: Lightly curved, longish and narrow with a fairly flat frontal. The crest develops from the back of the shoulders and runs up tot he apex, and here developing into a sharp conical point upon the head. The feathers from both sides of the shoulders converge together into a ridge or niche which runs up the back of the neck to form the crest.

Eyes: Very vivid, the iris is dark orange in color and is surrounded by a very slightly developed cere which is light pink to flesh in coloration.

Beak: Long thin and straight, the upper beak being slightly curved at the tip. The color the beak is light horn which becomes darker close to the tip.

Neck: Fairly long and comparatively thin. The throat is well rounded out.

Breast: Moderately wide and slightly pronounced.

Back: Sloping down and blending well into the tail.

Wings: Moderately long, tightly closed and lying nicely upon the tail without crossing. The tips should not extend to the end of the tail.

Tail: Long and narrow, tightly closed, being slightly longer than the flights. The tail must not be carried too low as to touch the ground.

Legs and Feet: Clean and unfeathered, fairly strong, red in color.

Color and Markings: The ground color tends to vary somewhat, from a sandy bronze to a dark copper. The ideal color being approximately mid-way between the two a bright copper bronze. This ground color extends from the head, down the neck and the breast and through to the ventral feathers and undertail coverts. The remaining plumage, the back, tail and wings are black in color. When the wing is opened there should be displayed a rich chestnut color across the inner webbing. The most significant feature of the Archangel is the abundance of metallic luster over the plumage, thus rendering colorful parts of the plumage that would otherwise appear to be dull.

Upon the copper bronze ground color the luster should be as bright a pink as possible, the brighter the pink on the under carriage, however, the more likely the pigeon is to be faulty in the neck hackle, where a green streakiness is inclined to appear. A slight green luster under the cheeks, particularly in hens is not to be confused with green hackle lustering, as it is nowhere is bad a fault. In the brightest types some pinkness may be observed on the back, this by no means a fault, and, unless it develops into a wide bronze bar across the center of the back, it should not be a reason for penalizing. The black plumage should have a beetle green luster that glistens, and which should be unbroken down the back and appear in broad bands upon the tail cover feathers.