Sword plate

[stillrollin300]

Hey guys what do you think? I can't seem to find the exact plate. Plus it looks almost to good to be true.

 

[kuger]

very similar to a 1820's-1840's Militia Belt Plate.I dont have my books handy,but that attachment does seem different from examples I see on line?Very awesome piece.

 

[CC Hunter]

The original buckles of that style were stamped from rolled sheet brass. The one here is a cast copy. Also, as Kuger pointed out, the attachment hooks in this buckle do not match the period examples.

CC Hunter

 

[Bryanhashemi]

very similar to a 1820's-1840's Militia Belt Plate.I dont have my books handy,but that attachment does seem different from examples I see on line?Very awesome piece.

I thought the same thing. The eagle and the banner which holds the "E PLURIBUS UNUM" were different. Maybe from a military school from 1890's to early 1900's possibly. Now, i was thinking spanish american war also but what i said earlier is throwing me off. Nice find.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Definitely a modernday Reproduction. ALL of the 1800s original versions were thin stamped sheetbrass -- not thicker solid-cast brass like your reproduction is. See the rectangular Militia plates in the O'Donnell buckle-book, pages 101-133. Also, they didn't have your plate's form of belt-attachment hooks.

Also, note the small raised rectangle beween the stars and ribbon at the top of the plate's back. That means it is either a Gary Williams Hanover Brass Foundry or Herb Parsley repro.

Edit: Once again, CC Hunter and I were typing our replies at the same time. Took me a while longer to finish, because I was searching through all of the relevant pages in the O'Donnell buckle-book.

 

[DCMatt]

It's a nice buckle. I'd clean it up and wear it.

DCMatt

 

[DCMatt]

Will you tell us where you found it? I am seeing more and more reenactor relics showing up at the MD club meetings. There may have been an event at your location.

It is a real rush to find a nearly perfect Virginia button and a big let down to discover it is a modern repro.

DCMatt

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

DC Matt, I dug a re-enactor reproduction Virginia State Seal button in a field at the Savage Station battlefield. (There's no doubt about the Waterbury Companies (CO'S is plural) backmark being post-1943, so I'm 100% sure my find was a repro, even though I dug dropped yankee .58 Minie-balls a few feet away.) For what it's worth to hear, a few years ago a repro Maryland boxplate got dug near the Antietam MD battlefield.

 

[stillrollin300]

I was near a battlefield I North Carolina but I've never seen reenactments there, guess they were there before my time :-/

 

[DCMatt]

DC Matt, I dug a re-enactor reproduction Virginia State Seal button in a field at the Savage Station battlefield. (There's no doubt about the Waterbury Companies (CO'S is plural) backmark being post-1943, so I'm 100% sure my find was a repro, even I dug dropped yankee .58 Minie-balls a few feet away.) For what it's worth to hear, a few years ago a repro Maryland boxplate got dug near the Antietam MD battlefield.

By law, events are never held on National Battlefields All other ground is available, though. There are usually two events each season at Cedar Creek Battlefield near Middletown, VA. That place is loaded with "relics".

We did the 150th anniversary of 1st Manassas across the road from the park land. Even though it is private property, there was a strict "NO DIGGING" policy for the weekend. We weren't even allowed to dig fire pits.

There were 9,000 reenactors on the field the first day. I can promise you that many buttons were popped. Someday the land will get hunted and the diggers will be surprised and dissappointed.

DCMatt

 

[CC Hunter]

DC Matt, I dug a re-enactor reproduction Virginia State Seal button in a field at the Savage Station battlefield. (There's no doubt about the Waterbury Companies (CO'S is plural) backmark being post-1943, so I'm 100% sure my find was a repro, even I dug dropped yankee .58 Minie-balls a few feet away.) For what it's worth to hear, a few years ago a repro Maryland boxplate got dug near the Antietam MD battlefield.

Relatively modern copies and reproductions of period items can be lost, discarded, or hidden, for any number or reasons or circumstances. A friend of mine that was stationed in Afghanistan on military detail a few years back, was even wearing a Hanover Brass two-piece copy of an 1850's state Tongue & Wreath buckle, while on duty there.

Note my own story at the end of this post discussion and thread:

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/what/335674-continental-army-button-2.html

CC Hunter

 

[CC Hunter]

I was near a battlefield I North Carolina but I've never seen reenactments there, guess they were there before my time :-/

Finding a non-period item in an unusual location where one would expect only period artifacts to surface, is certainly a bitter surprise. A reenactment is not necessary though, to account for a single item loss in any given location. I've even heard stories of people burying reproduction items as cruel jokes on their unsuspecting relic hunting friends. While we may surmise a logical explanation, fact is the true circumstances may be outside our realm of ideas, as to how something came to be lost, discarded, or hidden in a certain location.

CC Hunter