AMERICAN MILITIA BELT PLATE WITH UNUSUAL HOOK ATTACHMENT

AMERICAN MILITIA BELT PLATE WITH UNUSUAL HOOK ATTACHMENT

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$325.00 ON HOLD

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 1311-54

This plate is a good match for Plates 152-155 in O’Donnell and Campbell, used mainly by American militia in the broad period of about 1818 to about 1835 or so. Overall the plate is square, with rounded corners, and measures 60mm by 63mm, roughly fitting those O & C examples, but uses a long, pointed prong on the back rather than short, flat tongue.

The design features an eagle with US shield on its chest, clutching arrows and olive branch, superimposed on a panoply of arms featuring cannon barrels, a trumpet, musket buttstocks, and even two American Indian ball-headed war clubs, with pikes and halberd slanting to either side, with the edges of furled banners showing, and an E PLURIBUS UNUM ribbon in an arc overhead, over which is a second arc of thirteen stars. These show up in die struck rolled brass and copper, usually gilt or silvered. This one is brass, showing substantial gilt where it was protected by adjacent raised edges, with the high points and broader edges showing an undisturbed, aged brass patina. The back is dark, with a few spots of lighter color.

These plates almost always show up with round brass bar near one edge of the back fitted with two narrow tongues to engage and adjust one end of the belt, and the other edge fitted with a short, flat brass tongue to engage a hasp sewn into the other end of the belt. In this case the bar is made of flat stock and instead of the short, flat tongue there is a long, round in cross-section, pointed prong. We see nothing similar on the plates shown by O & C. From the sturdiness of it, we can only suppose it was meant to secure a robust leather saber belt, where weaker fittings would not have held up under the weight of the saber, and its swinging about at the waist of trooper while mounted, etc.   [sr] [ph:L]

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