DownNDirty,
Your stamped brass "Medallion" find, featuring a spread-wing eagle surrounded by the name of a business firm from Charleston South Carolina, is a unique and interesting piece. From personal experience relic digging in the Charleston area spanning well over 35 years, I can offer that this find here is the first example I've seen. On a further note, 19th century stamped brass Tongue & Wreath style buckles became a collecting obsession of mine many years ago, resulting in extensive research, field work, along with the study of as many varieties as could be encountered. Upon careful study of your find in the accompanying photos with this thread, I will state that this particular piece, from my own standpoint, is very
unlikely to be a center disk for a Tongue & Wreath buckle.
Granted, the style and design is rather similar to the *
Bondy Brothers * New York example of an 1850's stamped brass Tongue & Wreath (T&W) buckle as shown in this thread. However, all the known examples of stamped brass T&W buckles featuring an eagle design surrounded by a company name, have in fact been for dealers in clothing and belts, with listings either in New York or San Francisco. These particular styles of buckles gathered great popularity during the California Gold Rush, being manufactured and supplied specifically for that market. Of course there is always the possibility of a new variation of stamped brass T&W buckle being discovered, that may feature an entirely different business or even an entirely different city. Therefore, on this first point alone, I would not entirely strike the buckle theory from the record.
Of all the known examples of company marked stamped brass T&W buckles (for notation: an example of these has either been personally dug or acquired for my own collection), these are all stamped from one piece of rolled brass for the tongue portion. There are a number of 19th century T&W buckles with stamped brass center disks being attached by solder to a separate bar piece for the tongue, being of two-piece construction, (yet, none of these as just described are with company names surrounding the face). For the mystery "Medallion" here, I see no evidence of ever having solder affixed to the back, thereby ruling out this type of T&W buckle. If we consider the possibility that this was in fact a one-piece stamped brass tongue of thin rolled material, where the buckle disk had broken off the bridge piece near where originally attached to the belt loop (very common break by the way, as noted frequently with the thin stamped T&W buckles), then we should notice a slight rough break area on one side of this "Medallion" piece. To my trained eye, the perimeter of this mystery piece appears perfectly smooth all the way around, with no evidence of breakage at any point. Therefore, I see no evidence of attachment to what would normally be the usual T&W buckle tongue portion. This will be strike number two.
With only a rough estimation on size based on the relation to fingers in the accompanying photos earlier, this mystery "Medallion" appears to be nearly 1.5" in diameter. Of the known stamped brass T&W buckles with the eagle design and surrounding company name, the center disk is slightly under 1.25" diameter. The larger diameter on this mystery piece, is another strike against the T&W buckle possibility.
Taking into account that all the other known examples of stamped brass eagle T&W buckles with company names surrounding the designs coincide with the great demand for ready-clothing during the California Gold Rush, brings into play the time period of this event spanning 1848-1859. With the listed research location for this Charleston firm being a decade or two earlier (plus in the hardware business, rather than clothing), is even more strikes against fitting in with comparable T&W buckles of known company design.
Quite possibly the mystery "Medallion" was originally affixed or set into wood, on some hardware piece. I will merely speculate as to the true function of this detailed stamped brass piece. In closing, I believe the SOLVED status of this piece is entirely unwarranted at this point. Further discussion in hopes of a more concise attribution for this piece is certainly welcomed from this viewpoint.
CC Hunter
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