December 10-13, 2024 Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/10/2024
A "folding" or collapsible cap, constructed of green morocco leather and bound with green silk tape of 1/4-inch width. The outer leaves are 12 inches long at bottom and 5 1/4 inches high and essentially an oval of leather folded in half and edge-bound together with tape. The crown is composed of three pieces of leather, two inner leaves similar to the outer (but not doubled), with inward-folding gusset of lozenge shape, 12 inches long by 5 1/4 inches wide at center, bound with silk tape; the inside of the gusset is inscribed "C. Lane / 1795" in black paint. This cap was almost certainly one worn by a British or American commissioned officer, or a gentleman-volunteer in some "silk-stocking" militia unit, while the green suggests that it was most likely a rifle or light infantry corps. It is very similar in form to the caps known to have worn by some British and American units as early as the Revolutionary War and into the 1810s, constructed either of leather or cloth--a handful of which survive in museum and private collections. In some units, the leather caps were the sole headgear of the unit, but in other corps--primarily "hat" corps, such caps were used as forage or undress caps. PROVENANCE: Purchased in 1999 from a collector selling it as a "Roger's Rangers cap." CONDITION: overall good-very good, considering the fragile materials with which constructed, with edge wear to the outer leaves including 50% of binding , the crown very good, but the binding lace split 1 1/2 inches up from bottom on one side, requiring great care when opening the cap to prevent further damage.