online catalog

• What's New
• Reduced Price Items
• Artillery
• Books
• Bottles
• Buttons
• Confederate
• Contemporary Artist Prints
  • Framed Prints
  • Unframed Prints
• Currency, Bonds & Tokens
• Documents & Paper Goods
  • Art
  • Broadsides
  • Commissions
  • Discharges
  • Letters
  • Newspapers
  • Signatures
• Edged Weapons
  • Bayonets
  • Knives
  • Scabbards
  • Swords
• Firearms
  • Carbines
  • Cartridges & Gun Tools
  • Handguns
  • Holsters
  • Longarms
• Gettysburg Items
• Identified Items
  • Accoutrements
  • Edged Weapons
  • Firearms
  • Personal Items
  • Photography
  • Uniforms & Cloth
• Medical Items
• Military Accoutrements
  • Buckles/Plates
  • Canteens
  • Insignia & Badges
  • Leather
    • Belts
    • Cap & Cartridge Boxes
    • Haversacks / Knapsacks
    • Holsters
    • Scabbards
  • Spurs
• Personal Items
  • Amusements
  • Cooking
  • Jewelry
  • Personal Hygiene
  • Sewing
  • Smoking
  • Writing
• Photography
  • Albumens
  • Albums
  • Cabinet Cards
  • CDVs
    • Identified CDVs
    • Unidentified CDVs
  • Hard Images
    • Ambrotypes
    • Daguerreotypes
    • Tintypes
  • Stereoviews
• Relics
• Stock Items
  • Books
  • Clothing
  • Riker Cases
  • Shell Bases
  • Wood Display Cases
• Uniforms & Cloth
  • Flags
  • Headgear
  • Sashes & Hat Cords
  • Uniforms
• Veteran Memorabilia
  • GAR
  • UCV
• WWI / WWII
  • Equipment
  • Posters

MINT CONDITION COMPLETE BUFF LEATHER CAVALRY SABER BELT

Hover to zoom

This is a Civil War U.S. cavalry saber belt in buff leather in top notch condition, complete with both saber slings, the buff shoulder support belt as well, matching plate and keeper, and contractor marked. All the sliding tighteners are present as well: the large one on the waist belt, two on each saber sling, and one on the shoulder belt. The belt is the 1851 pattern, but produced about 1864 using the wider waist belt and taller plate with a one-piece wreath around eagle and sun rays all around the interior edge of the plate, and employing rivets as well as stitching to secure the hasp for the belt plate, the billets holding the two brass D-rings at front left with the carrying hook, and the rectangular brass loop at rear. The saber slings are correctly mounted to the belt with their original double-headed brass studs at the top. The shoulder belt, with its tightener loop, is there as well but loose, reflecting the penchant cavalrymen had for sometimes removing them, but can be placed back on the belt by simply feeding the smaller brass adjusting hook on one end under the upper bar of the rear brass loop, hooking it back through one of the size adjustment holes and sliding the tightener loop down over it to keep it secure. The larger brass hook then hooks into the upper D-ring at left front to help support the weight of the sword and other gear on the waist belt. (We simply left this as we got it.)

The buckle and hasp are bench numbered 778. These are assembly numbers used to keep the pieces together after filing and hand-fitting until they could be mounted on a belt. In this case we note the hasp initially had a different three-digit number, which was obliterated by stamping a zero over each digit, and the correct number then applied on the other side. These are completely original stampings, not applied by a collector or dealer to create a match, and unlikely to be the only examples of a harried factory worker dealing with scores of these plates and hasps having to make such a correction.

The belt has a clear maker’s ink stamp on the inside rear of the belt: “CROSSMAN / MAKER / NEWARK N.J.” Brothers Edwin A. and Malin B. Crossman seem to have moved to Newark about 1860 and both are listed as harness makers and with U.S. contracts, mainly it seems for infantry gear, but Bazelon (Vol. 1) lists contracts for E.A. Crossman & Co. (in which a Silas C. Halsey seems to have been the “Co.”) in1864-65 for 5,000 saber belts and plates, as well as carbine slings, and other cavalry gear, though there was likely a good deal of crossover in the brothers’ business dealings and military contracts. (See Bazelon’s Directory of American Military Goods and Makers for details.)

The belt is supple and, fortunately, has never had any preservatives or dressing applied to it. Originally dyed black, the buff leather has oxidized to brown from the iron used in dying process as almost all of these have. (Some enterprising students recreating the dye process discovered that the color shift probably occurred within months, if not weeks of issue and exposure to air.) As is also typical of buff leather, the belt is very sturdy and is supple. This is a very nice looking, complete, and sturdy cavalryman’s belt rig that would dress up a cavalry display, set out with all the other typical accoutrements and gear, and would certainly look great on a shell jacket. They don’t get any better for condition and you would have to look long and hard for one equally good.     [sr][ph:L]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS ITEM, AS WITH ALL OTHER ITEMS AVAILABLE ON OUR WEB SITE,

MAY BE PURCHASED THROUGH OUR LAYAWAY PROGRAM.

CLICK HERE FOR OUR POLICIES AND TERMS.

THANK YOU!

Inquire »