FRENCH CARTRIDGE BOX OR "GIBERNE" LATER TAKEN INTO SWISS SERVICE. 1740-1760.

A mid-18th century French infantry cartridge box sold out of service and subsequently refurbished and used by a Swiss canton militia regiment. The box is of the standard form and method of construction as produced for French infantry and heavy dragoons for the period 1740-1760s, until replaced by new patterns beginning c. 1767. It consists of a front and back panel, with a long, 2-inch wide strip of leather, rounded at each end, that composed the sides and bottom of the box; the assembled body measuring 9 1/2 Lx 6 x 2 1/4 inches and made of thick, tanned cowhide leather box with rounded corners at bottom. Sewn to the top of the back panel is the flap covering the open top and front of the box, slightly broader to protect the cartridges. As with most French boxes of this period, the leather is reddish brown and was originally furnished with buckles and other fittings on the bottom of the box, now missing. The vacant holes for the buckles and the extant cross-traps on each side (one largely missing) prove that the box was originally attached to a shoulder belt that was slung to each side, rather than behind. When later reutilized by the Swiss in the 1770s, the box was converted for waistbelt attachment, by two straps sewn the the back of the box. At the same time, an embossed flap was sewn over the original one, the new one bearing the name of the unit to which it was issued, "REGIMENT DE GRUYERE", over the coat of arms of Gruyere, flanked by panoplies of martial motifs. Inked on the inside of the original flap is "1790/bp/RP", probably relating to an issue to an individual within the Gruyere regiment. Another one of this Gruyere-altered boxes is in the Musee de la Armee in Paris and a third at Fort Ligonier. CONDITION: very good and complete as described, as converted in the 18th century, although missing its interior cartridge block or tin.

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