5-lobe cantles c1860 America

[OC Richard]

Something struck me as odd and interesting, as I poured over dozens of 19th century images.

The Highlanders Of Scotland provides an amazing variety of cantle designs, and many or most of these are seen time and again in period photos, and extant vintage items.

I did a thread giving closeup photos of all the HOS sporran types

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...cotland-67675/

and another thread comparing these to similar surviving examples.

But there seems to be a cantle design that's uniquely American, and that's a cantle with five more or less equal curves/lobes/lunettes across the bottom.

It first came to my attention in photos of the 1858-1861 Full Dress uniform of the 79th New York State Militia. (Full Dress was retired when the regiment was brought up to full strength for active service in 1861; only the original four companies were ever issued it.) Here they are, in 1861





Here you can perhaps see it more clearly, with the reproduction I had made by L&M, based on a full-size tracing of the original pre-war sporran housed at the Gettysburg Museum.



Here, in an 1872 photo, you can see that only the man on the right is wearing the pre-war 1858-1861 sporran; the other men are wearing the completely different sporran adopted post-war, when an entirely new Full Dress was introduced.



The fascinating thing is how often one comes across vintage photos of civilians, taken presumably in or around New York, showing a similar sporran cantle shape, and how this shape seems to never appear in images taken anywhere else (Scotland etc).







Only this photo appears to show a sporran that, in all its construction details, matches those worn by the 79th New York. The ones above have a different construction, say, a metal rim etc. It also shows a military waistbelt plate and a jacket which appears to be a civilian jacket based on the general design of the pre-war 79th NY jacket. However the hat is completely different, and in my opinion this isn't a military man. Is it a 79th NY veteran?