Civil War Officer Buckle? Antique shop find...Any thoughts Gents?

[Ihatepoisonivy]

Would anybody know any details about this buckle, I noticed it had 6 pointed stars, can't seem to find much..found one similar that states it was a infantry officers buckle....any ideas? I assume it's copper and not brass since the patina is green.

 

[ResurrectedVirginia]

Looks like a regulation Model 1851 sword belt plate. Its in incredible shape. I can't tell you much else. I'm not an expert but many different styles, patterns, and varieties exist and many different companies made them.

 

[ResurrectedVirginia]

HAHAHAHAA "I hate poison ivy" nice name man. I hate it to.

 

[Ihatepoisonivy]

Sweet, it does have that larger hook tab on the back like those...

 

[voodoo]

WOW that is in excellent shape!!

 

[parsonwalker]

I think ResVa hit it! Nice buckle!

 

[ARC]

It "looks good"... but fakes and forgeries are very good as well.
The experts here should be able to sort it out.
great find if real.

 

[Fullstock]

It appears to be a dug officers saber belt plate, and a nice one at that. The wider tongue indicates that it was made about mid war or later. Did you buy it?

 

[parsonwalker]

I always thought the Officer's plates had the soldered on silver wreath. Am I off base there?

 

[park pirate]

Very nice one..

 

[Fullstock]

It's the other way around Parsonwalker, the enlisted mans plates had the soldered on wreaths, the officers wreaths were cast as one piece with the plate.

 

[BuckleBoy]

Not sure that anyone would fake a common plate like this. It might be a replica that someone aged to make it look older... The tongue on the back doesn't look right for a CW period plate.

 

[Ihatepoisonivy]

I thought that was possible about the tongue on the back but I have seen a few buckles dug with wide tongs as well. I haven't bought it yet but I think I am Fullstock.

 

[Ihatepoisonivy]

What I don't see a lot of are the 6 pointed stars. Only seen one dug with those.

 

[geologyjohn]

Lots of examples of wide-tongue, cast-wreath ("officers") Eagle plates were manuafactured in the 1863-65 period (see "American Military Belt Plates" by O'Donnell & Campbell, 1996). This style was also continue when new regs came out in 1874. Yours is dead original, and most likely from the 1863-65 period. Nice score!

 

[Ihatepoisonivy]

Thanks Gents for the feedback, always appreciate everyone's personal and professional evaluation.

 

[Ihatepoisonivy]

Perfect match!

 

[geologyjohn]

I like it!

 

[parsonwalker]

It's the other way around Parsonwalker, the enlisted mans plates had the soldered on wreaths, the officers wreaths were cast as one piece with the plate.

Well Danged if I didn't learn something today. I've been wrong before tho. Once, in 1972, I thought I was wrong . . . but I was actually right, so I was wrong in thinking I wasn't right.

 

[flintchip]

I thought that was possible about the tongue on the back but I have seen a few buckles dug with wide tongs as well. I haven't bought it yet but I think I am Fullstock.

My son bought a plate, identical to this one, several years ago from a well known CW dealer. It did not have the belt keeper with it and we tried, to no avail, to find the matching keeper online and at CW relic shows. We had more than one dealer tell us it was a late war production and one who swore it was post-war. So, some time later I was going through boxes of relics I had dug and guess what; yep, there was a belt keeper I had dug years earlier in a Union CW camp that was occupied from 1862-1865. It is a perfect, and I mean like it was made exactly for our plate, match. To get to the point, I can say with great certainty that these plates were used during the war, although nowhere near, or to the extent, as the narrow tongues or the applied wreaths. Hope this helps.