Revolver cartridge boxes

Ralph Heinz

Corporal
Joined
Feb 14, 2016
Location
Pacific Northwest
Here is an imported English Navy cartridge box, unmarked and it is exactly like one in Jarnagin's collection His is on a buff leather belt along with a large frame Confederate Colt revolver holster. I don't want to post photos of that outfit per possible copyright infringement. Jarnagin's is darker leather than mine. I have seen one other one and it was made of black leather.
Front my Brit. Navy rev. ctg. box 1.JPG
Brit. Navy box 4.JPG

Back Brit. Navy 3.JPG

Also here is another English imported pistol cartridge box that surfaced in Charlotte, NC some years ago. The brass finial is exactly like the ones on Enfield rifle cartridge pouches and the square stitching is identical to that on my A. Ross & Co. rifle cartridge pouch. It also has English style double line stitching. In addition, the front cover was "water proofed" with a coating of asphaltum (bitumen) -- a good idea when paper cartridges were inside.
British revolver ctg. box 1.JPG
English pouch back 2.JPG
English revolver ctg box detail.JPG


I doubt that many of these survived and they may have been imported in a very limited quantity. The one above had a verbal history of Confederate use for whatever that's worth but I doubt the Union imported any of these as they had their own American made ones and it did come out of NC.
 
Very Very Nice and you ar right the finials scream English. Thanks for sharing.
 
The inside dimensions of the first pouch are 4.75' X 1.75" so it might hold six packages of revolver cartridges six to a pack. The second one is 5.5" x 7/8ths inches so it held far fewer packs of cartridges. As fragile as those paper cartridges were and their paper packages, if you had any hope of reloading your revolver, you'd better have something like these to carry the cartridges in. As small as they are (being smaller than a carbine cartridge box) they would probably not be seen in photos as most portraits are soldiers facing the camera and even their rifle cartridge pouches are hard to see. Then too, they may well have been worn around back on the belt since the revolver was a secondary weapon for close range.
 
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