REVOLUTIONARY WAR "NEW CONSTRUCTED CARTRIDGE BOX" W/ WEB SLING

An extremely rare example of a cartridge box of "New Construction" first produced as the standard Continental Army pattern beginning in 1778, but stockpiled until 1779, when most of Washington's main army were first supplied with them during the winter cantonment at Middlebrook, New Jersey. Copied from a captured British cartridge "pouch", the primary features of this pattern include a large, wooden block usually drilled to hold 29 cartridges (note this box has a block for 23, which appears to be a variant pattern or period replacement), a tray underneath accessed by a pull-down flap in the front (a slit at top center allowing it to be secured to a brass stud affixed to the front of the block) which held 12 additional rounds, spare flints and cleaning supplies--a feature found on the "double" boxes only. "Single" boxes were also produced for the Continental Army, which only had the 29-hole block, but no tray below. The "New Constructed" boxes were marked improvements over the common American boxes used earlier in the war, which typically had 15- to 23-round blocks housed in thin leather, "bag" bodies, with smaller and lighter flaps. Many of these flaps of these boxes were secured by a brass hook riveted to the inside of the flap centered a few inches from bottom which would then be secured in a triangular, openwork "clasp of heavy sheet brass, riveted to the bottom of the box. This example was furnished with such when first made, as evidenced by vacant holes in the leather, but they apparently either fell-away or were purposely removed in service and a leather tab with slit was sewn on inside of flap in same location as the former hook and a leather button once attached the rear bottom of the box but now separated. The original shoulder belt for this box survives, which is a 52-inch length of hemp or linen drilling, the selvedge edge remaining and the cut edge of the fabric felled and overcast-stitched on the inside, forming a 2 1/4 inch-wide strap. The ends of the belt are folded inwards and stitched down for approximately four inches, to form a strap 7/8-1 inch-wide--narrow enough to buckle into the iron harness buckles sewn to the bottom of the box. A superb example of a rare form that I first identified and presented in an exhibit "Washington's Secret Weapon" and public lectures in 1985, based on extant manuscript records describing this box, archaeologically-recovered fittings from Continental encampments, and actual boxes in various private and museum collections. At that time, less than a dozen were known; today, nearly 40 years later, the count stands at approximately three dozen. In 28 years of collecting accoutrements, I have owned four New-Constructed boxes: one is now in the Society of the Cincinnati collections, another in the Nittolo collection at Fort Ticonderoga, another in a private collection and finally, this fine specimen (found in upstate New York, 2014). CONDITION: The strap with some fraying, snag holes and spots of staining, with evidence of period field repairs; the block with some chipping to edges of a few holes; the tin tray missing (removed during the period), and the thin leather gussets of the pull-down flap torn and partly missing; the leather of the pouch in very good condition for age. JLK