Pre-Civil War Militia Enameled Leather Belt with 2-Piece Eagle Belt Plate

SOLD

Pre-Civil War Militia Enameled Leather Belt with 2-Piece Eagle Belt Plate – This early belt exhibits an unusual decorative element – it was enameled, in the period, c. 1850s to 1860, in two distinct colors – the belt proper was painted / enameled in an off-yellow or cream color; painted blue, is a decorative, scalloped border, along the top and bottom edge of the belt. The two-piece, Eagle, tongue and wreath style plate is an Ames-made, 1851 pattern buckle. The belt was probably constructed by E. Gaylord. The wreath of the belt plate is in the “clockwise acanthus leaf motif”, which Ames created shortly before the onset of the Civil War; this style of wreath appears on many southern pattern buckles and CS plates. The belt retains its original, brass adjustment keeper, on the belt proper and painted, leather “safe”, behind the belt plate. The Eagle disk, is stamped sheet brass, sweated on to the tongue. The belt remains in excellent condition, with no paint loss; there is some age cracking, but no chipping or weak areas. This is a superior example of a rare, late antebellum, early war rig.