Civil War Eagle Breast Plate with Initials?

[spudnutt]

Just got this eagle breast plate and it has some initials stamped onto the front below the eagle. The initials read WKC

Does anyone know if this is a suppliers mark, makers mark or soldiers initials?

 

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[duggap]

I have never heard of a plate being marked in that manner. I would guess a previous owner did that.

 

[CRUSADER]

Whats the back look like? It looks too good to be true.

 

[spudnutt]

Whats the back look like? It looks too good to be true.

Here's a picture of the back. The lead has fallen out. It is in superb condition. That's why I was thinking WSK was a supplier and this was surplus. There's no question as to its authenticity. I got it from a dealer who works with museums in gettysburg authenticating artifacts.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Spudnutt wrote:
> The initials read WKC.

The photo shows the letters are WSK, not WKC. WSK presumably represent W. Stokes Kirk, an arms-dealer company in Philadelphia from 1874-to-1976. After its founding in 1874, the W.Stokes Kirk company purchased enormous quantities of civil war suplus armaments and equipment at US Government auctions, and then re-sold the stuff to foreign governmment armies and the American public.

Your eagle breastplate is not missing its filler-metal, it is an "unfinished" one. W. Stokes Kirk purchased vast numbers of leftover "unfinished" insignia (missing the attachment-hooks, etc) from the US Government's leftover wartime stockpile. Apparently you've got one of the W.Stokes Kirk company's leftovers. Unfortunately, there's no way to know whether your breastplate-front was manufactured during the civil war or not, because W. Stokes Kirk also purchased the original manufacturing stamping-dies for US buckles and breastplates -- and used those dies to make copies in the 1870s-1890s for civil war veterans organizations.

 

[tennessee digger]

Once again Cannonballguy (Pete) is exactly right. We are very fortunate to have him and his vast knowledge on this forum. He knows relics. Tennessee digger

 

[cw0909]

Spudnutt wrote:
> The initials read WKC.

The photo shows the letters are WSK, not WKC. WSK presumably represent W. Stoke Kirk, an arms-dealer company in Philadelphia from 1874-to-1976. After its founding in 1874, the W.Stokes Kirk company purchased enormous quantities of civil war suplus armaments and equipment at US Government auctions, and then re-sold the stuff to foreign governmment armies and the American public.

Your eagle breastplate is not missing its filler-metal, it is an "unfinished" one. W. Stokes Kirk purchased vast numbers of leftover "unfinished" insignia (missing the attachment-hooks, etc) from the US Government's wartime stockpile. Apparently you've got one of the W.Stokes Kirk company's leftovers. Unfortunately, there's no way to know whether your breastplate-front was manufactured during the civil war or not, because W. Stokes Kirk also purchased the original manufacturing stamping-dies for US buckles and breastplates -- and used those dies to make copies in the 1870s-1890s for civil war veterans organizations.

now thats some interesting info,im glad i didnt buy a breastplate about 10yr ago,i was suspicious because it wasnt worn
prob a lot of those copies going around as originals,do the copies say copy,i dont remember if it was the same co.,but
if they bought dies, im sure others did,and or have,super info
good job on that cannonballguy

thought it should look like this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Union-Eagle...999?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43aea6584f

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Cw0909 wrote:
> do the copies say copy?

The copies made by the W. Stokes Kirk Co. (all in the latter-1800s era) do not say "copy" on them. But, some (unfortunately, not nearly all) of the modern-era reproductions made by various manufacturers are marked "copy" or "replica" on the back side.

Here's another way to recognize a modernday reproduction:
Relic-diggers and collectors commonly call these breastplates (and Oval US buckles and cartridge-boxplates) "lead-filled" plates. But in actuality, the filler-metal in the back of civil war Original ones was solder, not lead. But modernday Reproductions are indeed filled with lead. Solder is a "harder" metal than lead. So, here's how to test a breastplate or Oval US buckle or boxplate. If you can easily make a bright-shiny scrape-mark in the plate's filler-metal by just scraping it with your fingernail, the filler-metal is lead, and thus the plate/buckle is a Reproduction.

> I thought it should look like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/Union-Eagle-...item43aea6584f

The Ebay seller says he doesn't know "if this has been dug or just laying in the Corn Crib for 50 Years." But the fact that one of the iron wire attachment-loops on the back has rusted off, and the heavy oxidation (patina) on the back's filler-metal tells us that it is a dug (excavated) breastplate. A previous owner partially "shined up" the brass front of that breastplate.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Once again Cannonballguy (Pete) is exactly right. We are very fortunate to have him and his vast knowledge on this forum. He knows relics. Tennessee digger

Yes we are very fortunate to have him. Im looking forward to the book you sent in the mail, Peter. Should be here today. Thanks.


Who's job is it to remind or post the green check? I think this one is complete.