RARE TINNED-IRON MASSACHUSETTS MILITIA CAP PLATE 1825-1840

RARE TINNED-IRON MASSACHUSETTS MILITIA CAP PLATE 1825-1840

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$595.00

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Item Code: 1273-111

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Campbell & O’Donnell, Headgear Insignia, consider tinned-iron cap plates rare. See their comments on their Fig. 613, which differs from this in design, but is similar in material and close in date, this one being specifically intended for Massachusetts militia and dating, by their reckoning, 1825-1840.

This cap plate measures 4-1/2 X 3-1/4 in. and has scalloped top and bottom edges, using four scallops, and straight sides. The plate has a ¼” wide border consisting of three narrow raised ribs. The plate has a slightly flattened tubular plume holder, 1-3/8” long soldered at top center on the reverse. It was mounted on the cap by sewing or small wires: one small hole appears at top and bottom of the straight edge portion of the plate on either side, along with two small holes on either side at the midpoint. These are made in the channel between the inner two ribs of the border.

The plate features at center the 1780 Massachusetts state seal, which used earlier elements - a raised shield at center with full-standing Indian figure, often taken to be Massasoit, holding a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other (with point down supposedly signifying peace,) with the North Star at upper left. The maker endeavored to give this a finer touch by using a finely checkered ground in the shield, that is rather shallow, but clearly meant to imitate a higher-quality, stippled ground. Underneath the shield is a ribbon scroll with “MASSACHUSETTS MILITIA” in raised letters. The state motto does not appear, but the arm with broadsword still appears at top, and the whole is accented with some cursory, not well defined, foliate motifs at the upper corners and along the bottom edge of the scroll.

The plate shows largely as gray, but with some bright, silver colored areas in recesses or next to raised elements that shielded the lower surface from rubbing. This is most noticeable on the front, though the back also shows a few, small brighter spots. This comes from “flash-dipping” the stamped thin iron plate in molten tin to give it a bright silver color. Where that coating has been rubbed, the tin has become thin enough to permit oxidation of the underlying iron. On the upper legs of the standing figure on the face, and in larger areas of the reverse, the tin coating was sufficiently worn to permit some very thin, dusty, red rust to form.

See C&O Fig. 613 for a similarly tinned iron militia cap plate, and see, also their Fig. 638, which matches this plate in size and design, but is “silver-on-copper,” i.e. likely Sheffield Plate. C&O note that that plate would often be considered “officer quality” with the assumption that enlisted men in the same company would be wearing brass plates. This plate opens up two interesting alternatives. Since the two plates are pretty much identical in size and design, one possibility is that enlisted men might well have worn plates like this to preserve the silver color distinction in a company commanded by officers wearing the more finely detailed, and expensive, Shefield Plate version, i.e., C&O Fig 638. The other possibility is simply that this plate was a less expensive alternative for a militia company as a whole who might not have been as well off socially or financially as other companies of the “Elegant Elite” who, in larger cities at least, competed with one another in the costliness of their uniforms, arms, and equipment. In any case, C&O note that tinned-iron cap plates were the least expensive versions of a given pattern and are “rarely seen,” though they can’t decide whether that was because production was limited or that they were not deemed worth saving.

Whatever the reason in a specific case, this is still a scarce version of a militia plate and one clearly illustrating something of the financial and class differences one might find in a militia company or between similarly outfitted militia companies of the period, and merits a place beside its showier companions.  [sr][ph:L]

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