US Civil War, Rare Pattern M1851 Federal Belt Plate, Applied Eagle & Wreath
This item is listed for historical interest only. It was listed on our site previously but has been sold and is no longer available for purchase.
Sold for: $325.00

Original era manufacture. We purchased this buckle several weeks back in a building with poor lighting, thinking at thetime we were purchasing a standard cast brass buckle with an applied wreath. Since thisbuckle was part of a largepurchase that day,it was placed in a box with the otherthings and more or lessforgotten about for a time.While getting ready to place it on our site, it came under closer scrutiny, and I noticed that the eagle itself was sweat soldered onto the body of the buckle instead of cast as normally seen. Looking through our copy of Platesand Buckles of the American Military 1795-1874, by Sydney C. Kerksis, a reference for this pattern buckle was made on page 63, figure57. He states that the (book's)illustrated exampleis very unusual in that the wreath and eagle are sweated on, a pattern usually associated with some buckles made at Allegheny Arsenal, withthe buckle given ararity rating of 5, (same as an oval SNYbuckle)the standard pattern buckle is a rarity 3.The obverse of the buckle shows staining from age, it hasn't been cleaned in decades and has a wonderful,untouched patina overall. When this left the production lineit must have been one stunning buckle. Slightly smaller dimensionally, being 50x80 mm, instead of 52x85 mm as stated in the book.