British cartridge box flap

Dateca. 1760-1783

MediumLeather & gold leaf

DimensionsWidth: 8 1/2" Length: 6 7/8"

Credit LineGift of Mr. William Asadorian.

Object number1996-866

DescriptionCartridge box flap, black grain leather with cypher of George III (crowned 'GR 3') embossed in gold on center of flap. Nine tack holes along rear edge.
Label TextAs new recruits joined their regiments in the British Army, they were issued with a "stand of arms," consisting of a musket, its bayonet and a complete belt rig. The latter was composed of a simple waist belt, a frog and bayonet scabbard and a cartridge box. Thus equipped, the newly minted 'redcoat" was ready to fight.

A standard British government-issued cartridge box was composed of a simple wooden block drilled with either nine or eighteen holes, each sized to accommodate a single musket cartridge. To protect the ammunition, a black leather flap was tacked along the top edge of the back side of the wooden block and secured at the bottom of the front edge by a leather button. The edges of the leather flap were tooled and in some cases the King's cypher was gold-stamped into to its front.

With its wooden block gone, this flap was discarded along the East River waterfront in British-occupied New York City in the late 1770s or early 1780s. During the construction of a skyscraper two centuries later, it was found far below street level at the northeast corner of John & Water Streets in Lower Manhattan.

See "Don Troiani's Soldiers of the American Revolution," p. 4 for an intact example with an identical flap.
MarkingsCypher of King George III (GR 3 and crown) gold-stamped into the center front of the flap over the button hole.
ProvenanceEx-coll: William Asadorian. Found in August, 1982 during the construction of an office building at the intersection of John & Water Streets, at a depth of 15 to 20 feet below street level.