VERY NICE W.H. SMITH MARKED CARTRIDGE BOX PLATE FOUND AT HARPERS FERRY BY SYD KERKSIS MAY 1962

VERY NICE W.H. SMITH MARKED CARTRIDGE BOX PLATE FOUND AT HARPERS FERRY BY SYD KERKSIS MAY 1962

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$595.00 ON HOLD

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 2026-1734

This is an excellent condition US M1839 cartridge box plate made and very crisply marked on the reverse by “W.H. SMITH / BROOKLYN.” Adopted in 1839, these plates were made of stamped, rolled brass with fastening loops on the back secured by a lead solder fill. These were used throughout the war and were both ornamental and functional, keeping the outer flap of cartridge box closed, even if unlatched. This one comes in its original collection envelope of Syd Kerksis, on which he noted the find location and date. Syd Kerksis was one of the legendary early relic hunters and collectors, and author of “Plates and Buckles of the American Military 1795-1874,” which led the way for a couple of generations of relic hunters, collectors, students, and authors.

The face has a smooth olive brown color with very good edge to the rim and sharp definition of the letters with just some very minor, thin gray showing in some recesses next to the letters or the raised edge of the face. There are no dings or dents to the rim. The lead solder fill on the reverse is fully in place with a level surface, largely light gray in color with some thin white and light brown. Both iron wire loops are in place, one of them showing just a bit more brown and shallow corrosion than the other, but both are intact and sturdy.

Kerksis’s collection envelope reads: Harpers Ferry / May 62 / CBP / “Smith” / Md Heights/ Camp Stone Ft.” [“CBP” was Kerksis’s abbreviation for “cartridge box plate.”] Construction of a blockhouse on the commanding position of Maryland Heights was begun by Union forces in the winter of 1862-63, but not completed beyond a stone foundation measuring roughly 100 by 40 feet and some walls. The area became a storage area for commissary and other supplies, an 1864 inspection reported it contained rations for 5,000 men shielded by stone walls, but only boards overhead, but the spot has retained its nickname of the “Stone Fort.” Kerksis’s note “Camp Stone F[or]t” clearly indicates he found it in one of the tented camps of troops posted to the position.

The maker of the plate, W.H. Smith, was a brass finisher by trade and may have had pre-war contracts with New York, but by June 1861 was advertising “brass trimmings for all kinds of military equipments” and seems to have been active through the summer of 1864,  advertising that his products were, “warranted to stand the United States inspection.”

This is in excellent excavated condition with a tight provenance to a well-known early relic hunter.  [sr][ph:L]

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