Buckle Covers!

[Deftone]

Hi all just been bored and curious about buckle covers. Pretty much all I can find online are the hearts that they say are from civil war era. I've seen a few posted here and there. Please share and discuss. I dug all mine cept the 5 in the back. I found em on a wire hooked on a nail while cleaning out an old barn and Grandma said i can has. All I have is this old picture. My camera pooped out so I'm hoping Santa pulls through. Happy Holidays to all and HH!

 

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[kuger]

Yep,thats what they were...if you use E-Bay as a research tool,they were confederate bed roll buckles!!!!

 

[creskol]

Having dedicated much research to this topic, the earliest patent I can find on any type of buckle cover was held by Henry Pott, circa 1874. His cover, however, was an integral part of the buckle itself, and mainly served as a buckle loop, rather than a shield. The first true buckle cover patent that I could find was held by David Mosman, issued in 1879, and it more closely resembles the solid brass covers with the rigid ends that we also see attributed to the Civil War. The first true buckle cover that resembles these that we see with hearts was patented by Ralph Wooding in 1892. Prior to these dates, the only reference to buckle covers/protectors/shields was the use of a secondary leather strap that covered the face of the buckle. My research is always continuing as new information and leads come about, but so far, I have not found anything that definitively dates these to the Civil War era.

 

[Deftone]

see no1 care's. Just derail RAWR!!11!!

 

[creskol]

see no1 care's. Just derail RAWR!!11!!

you lost me on that one

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

I'm posting a copy of my reply in another TreasureNet category here, as an Educational service to the forum's relic diggers and collectors.

Civil-war-22 wrote:
> I really just think it quite odd the large amount of people that find these in all parts of
> the US where confederate and union armies set foot on.

Bcs123 wrote:
> The facts are they were used by not only cw troops but civilian's as well due to
> the long production runs of the design

When the exact form of a particular "relic" was not invented until after the civil war, it's flatly impossible for that exact form of relic to have been in use during the civil war. There is rock-solid proof that the exact form of buckle-shield found by Eboy1960 was not invented until 1892. I've giving Creskol and Kuger the "main" credit for that information. All I've done is find a copy of the US Patent they mentioned, and make a post-able copy of the inventor's diagram in that 1892 Patent. View the diagram from it, below, and you'll see that what it shows is identical to Eboy's buckle-shield, except for lacking a heart emblem on it.

The earliest known version of metal buckle-shield was invented and patented in the 1870s (see Patent-diagram dated 1879 and an example, below). That earlier version was made of thick solid-cast brass ...and it didn't have a hinged loop on its end. The 1892-patented "improved" version was made of thinner, "stamped" sheet-brass, one end of which was folded under itself to hold a swiveling loop. As I said, you'll see that its form and construction is identical to Eboy's find. It didn't exist in 1861-1865, and therefore it cannot have been used by either soldiers or civilians in that time-period.

Despite what is said in two civil war relic books, the inventor's 1892 US Patent (#466,959) diagram shows it absolutely is not a "Confederate blanket-roll buckle." So, unless you are a collector of 1890s horsegear, please do not pay $265 for the one currently being sold as a Confederate soldier's relic at an Internet auction, nor even $15 for the ones frequently seen on Ebay.

 

[kuger]

As usual CBG,awesome,well worded facts.I thank you.Patents dont lie........often times authors/dealers do

 

[wheatfinder13]

That's a lot

 

[Deftone]

I Guess when I was bringing this up in the past I was loling my ass off cause all anyone worries about are the heart's. I want to see more variant's. As in my picture. But nooo. How many covers get posted with the circle or oval diamond thingy? Also the smaller sizes.

 

[creskol]

I Guess when I was bringing this up in the past I was loling my ass off cause all anyone worries about are the heart's. I want to see more variant's. As in my picture. But nooo. How many covers get posted with the circle or oval diamond thingy? Also the smaller sizes.

-
What's you point, deftone? No matter what the decoration or motif on them are, they are still post war buckle covers.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Per Deftone's request:
Here's another 1892-Patent buckle shield with the "circle" (or, "aureole with flat nipple") instead of a heart. It was found and posted at Treasurenet by Got2dig in December 2012.

I can't call the emblem a bullseye, because it contains only one circle. Folks who object to the "nipple" term can call it a circle-inside-a-circle.

 

[Deftone]

Hey cres hope all is well for you. The whole point of this thread is buckle covers. In my outing's finding one make's my day out of the ordinary. Take Guy's lead on sharing his. That one is awesome. I don't have that version in my collection. Thx for sharing! I can care less post war. That's no biggy. I already know that. Hope you understand now.

 

[Deftone]

Has anyone dug a cover that isn't brass? In my pic the small one 1 to the left is not.A magnet did nothing. Admin's can only do so much but maybe this shoulda been moved to collection's. You can research all day Creskol or you can dig a cover and wonder how n the hell it got there.

 

[jollyone]

I found this one at a confederate site early this year



It doesn't appear to be brass I wasn't sure what it was or how to clean it there are no markings on it

 

[creskol]

Somebody's gonna get hosed on this one!

Old RARE Vintage Antique Civil War Relic Confederate Brass Blanket Roll Buckle | eBay

 

[kuger]

I truly dont understand that Rob,I mean you would think if you were willing to pay that kind of money for something that you would either know better or research!Yea,there are several books that mis-id them,but this is the age of the intenet where a simple google search and a look at the Patent dates will tell ya all you need to know!!I almost dont feel sorry for people like that

 

[SILENTHAWK72]

Somebody's gonna get hosed on this one!

Old RARE Vintage Antique Civil War Relic Confederate Brass Blanket Roll Buckle | eBay

It's a buckle guard commonly found on horse tack