Description:
Small leather pouch with two leather straps on the reverse side,which are held in place at the base with two iron rivets(?). These straps probably would have been threaded through the soldier's belt. The top leather flap of the pouch has a leather tab at the bottom which hooks on through a hole in the leather tab to a brass knob; the top flap also has two side leather side tabs. When that top leather flap is lifted, there is another smaller leather pouch below. The flap on that pouch is impressed "F. CHILLINGWORTH/ MAKER, GREENFIELD MASS", and covers a small pouch where the caps would have been placed. The whole is sewn together along the outer seams with cotton thread. Another small box in the Historic Deerfield collection (HD 85.006) is also made by Felix Chillingworth of Greenfield. Inside that box is a pasted label which reads "Felix Chillingworth/ Manufacturer of and dealer in/ MILITARY/ Accoutrements and Equipments, Saddles, Harnesses, Blankets, Whips, Bells, & c & c. / Trunks, Traveling Bags, and Valises of Every Description./ Main Street/ Merchants Row, Successor to C.K. Wilkinson, Greenfield, Mass." Chillingworth later moved to Springfield, where he had contracts with the Northern Army for weapon supplies. After the Civil War, Chillingworth later took out patents on bayonet designs.
Label Text:
Combat and parade spectacles required not just recognizable dress, but also vital accessories. This small leather pouch was worn on a belt, where it would have held caps, or bullets, to load into a rifle. By the middle of the 19th century, its maker, Felix Chillingworth, advertised his expertise in print, declaring he was a “Manufacturer of and dealer in/ MILITARY/ Accoutrements and Equipments, Saddles, Harnesses, Blankets, Whips, Bells, & c & c. / Trunks, Traveling Bags, and Valises of Every Description./ Main Street/ Merchants Row, Successor to C.K. Wilkinson, Greenfield, Mass."
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2011.7 |
