2 Piece buckle?

[rtde3]

OK guys,
This is not so much a "What is it" post.
But more like a "What was on it" and "How Old is it" and "Is it Military or not" post.
We know it's a 2 piece buckle.
Here's the story so far on this buckle.
Last week I was hunting this old home site that date's back to at least the 1800's.

I first found this half of the buckle. This picture is before I cleaned it.

I did not notice at the time that there seemed to be an X pattern on it. So I cleaned it up some.
I'm pretty sure it had black paint on it at one time.
And what ever was on this buckle preserved the paint underneath it. And that's what you see in the shape of an X.

Then I was back at the same spot & found the other half of this buckle.

When I went to clean it at home that's when I noticed the X design on this half.

So what was on this buckle? You can see the 4 slots where it attached.
Was it crossed cannons something like these? Or something else?


Was this a Military buckle even though it's kind of light weight?
I did find these 2 CW buttons at the same spot.


The first Eagle Button tells us the soldier that lived there was in the Artillery.
So the crossed cannons might make since.
The second button was made for officers. So was there a dress uniform that this buckle came from?

How old is this Buckle?
It's seems to me that this buckle is newer than something dating back to the civil war.
The fact that it still had some black paint on it. And it's more of a light weight type of buckle.
Here are some more pictures of it front & back so you can have a good look at it.
Each side is 2" by 1 1/2".




Thanks for any Help!

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

Cool find!

Nothing specific to add except that in the second picture from the bottom I see a total of six "circles" on each side of the buckle ... four of which are directly on top of the little slots. The slots suggest to me that something was originally attached to the face of each plate. I invision a "Six-armed-X" (with balls on the ends) attached to each piece.

SBB

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

Maybe something like this ...

[rtde3]

Cool find!

Nothing specific to add except that in the second picture from the bottom I see a total of six "circles" on each side of the buckle ... four of which are directly on top of the little slots. The slots suggest to me that something was originally attached to the face of each plate. I invision a "Six-armed-X" (with balls on the ends) attached to each piece.

SBB

Thanks SBB!
I think you are right. Your drawing might be spot on!
The circles you talked about over the slots could have come from something that looked like the center rod of this buckle with the circles on the ends.


If you turn it over it looks like this.


So it could have made these circles you talked about.

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

I realize the buckle shown below does not match the one in question. I am showing it primarily for three reasons ...

1. It is the only one I found that is two-piece and even comes close.
2. It has a similar looking clasp.
3. It is engraved with 1900

With so little to go on, it may be difficult to find an exact matching buckle. But it may be possible to approximately date it based on the clasp design. However, that will likely require a "clasp expert" which I am not.

SBB