bobinwmass
Sergeant
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2019
- Location
- Western Massachusetts
Some of you may have seen my circa 1845 National Lancers of Boston uniform jacket I depicted last year in my post about Massachusetts swords and the Model 1833 dragoon saber used by the Lancers. Here is another photo in case you missed it.
Well I just bought a later version Lancers jacket off Ebay last week and it arrived today. I was wondering if you guys can help me narrow down its date. I believe the Lancers started using this version of the jacket just prior to the Civil War and into the 20th century. It is different from the older jacket in that the "NL" buttons are 2 piece buttons as opposed to one piece buttons, and the "NL" style is different. I believe this jacket likely dates from the 1855 to 1875 period, first due to the button maker backmark. All the large buttons are backmarked with the "D. Evans & Co. Attleboro Mass" on a swallowtail ribbon. Evans began using this backmark about 1855 until about 1870, and it is found on many pre-War and Civil War era militia buttons. Evans also made the same style National Lancer buttons using a later backmark, so the backmark here would seem to indicate an earlier jacket. The jacket lacks any fancy manufacturer's label that you often find on many later 1800's uniforms, and there appears to be a lot of hand stitching. I'm posting some photos of the stitching and construction so hopefully some of our experts will chime in. While I would love to confirm that this could be a pre-War or war time era jacket, I'm also aware it may be a decade or so post war and would okay with it. I am into for less than the retail value of just all those buttons, which are considered to be war time vintage. In addition, it also had an incorrect pair of epaulets attached, which I think are postwar and some yahoo spray painted the white cloth tassels gold, but the Pennsylvania militia buttons on the epaulets also have war time backmarks. Here's the jacket.
Well I just bought a later version Lancers jacket off Ebay last week and it arrived today. I was wondering if you guys can help me narrow down its date. I believe the Lancers started using this version of the jacket just prior to the Civil War and into the 20th century. It is different from the older jacket in that the "NL" buttons are 2 piece buttons as opposed to one piece buttons, and the "NL" style is different. I believe this jacket likely dates from the 1855 to 1875 period, first due to the button maker backmark. All the large buttons are backmarked with the "D. Evans & Co. Attleboro Mass" on a swallowtail ribbon. Evans began using this backmark about 1855 until about 1870, and it is found on many pre-War and Civil War era militia buttons. Evans also made the same style National Lancer buttons using a later backmark, so the backmark here would seem to indicate an earlier jacket. The jacket lacks any fancy manufacturer's label that you often find on many later 1800's uniforms, and there appears to be a lot of hand stitching. I'm posting some photos of the stitching and construction so hopefully some of our experts will chime in. While I would love to confirm that this could be a pre-War or war time era jacket, I'm also aware it may be a decade or so post war and would okay with it. I am into for less than the retail value of just all those buttons, which are considered to be war time vintage. In addition, it also had an incorrect pair of epaulets attached, which I think are postwar and some yahoo spray painted the white cloth tassels gold, but the Pennsylvania militia buttons on the epaulets also have war time backmarks. Here's the jacket.