SHOULDER-BELT PLATE, NEW YORK LIGHT GUARD, 

 C. 1840 



USNM 60435 1-M QS-K 507"). Figure 114. 



The New York Military Magazine provides us with a 

 strong clue in identifying this clipped-corner, bevelled- 

 edged brass plate with a silver-on-copper tiger's head 

 applied. In a sketch of the Light Guard of New York 

 it is related that, following a \isit in 1836 to the Boston 



Figure 224 



Light Infantry, members of the company "adopted, 

 as part of their uniform, a silver tiger's head, to be 

 placed on ihe breast plate, as a further memento of 

 the spirited and elegant corps whose guests they had 

 been." '^' This specimen is in agreement with that 

 description. 



SHOULDER-BELT PLATE, DRAGOONS, C. 1840 



USNM 604351-M (S-K 508} . Figure 115 . 



An unusual manufacturing technique was used in 

 making this plate. It was struck in very heavy brass 

 about )i6 inch thick and the whole tinned; then, all 

 the tin on the obverse, except that on the crested 



Figure 225 



helmet device, was buffed away, gix'ing the center 

 ornament the appearance of having been silvered. 

 The specimen obviously was made for a particular 

 mounted unit, designation unknown. An interesting 

 detail is the letter ".^" on the half-sunburst plate of 

 the dragoon helmet device. 



SHOULDER-BELT PLATE, C. 1840 



VSNM 604350-M (S-K 506). Figure 116. 



This plate, which is of brass with a cast, white-metal 

 likeness of Washington applied with wire fasteners, 

 may well have belonged to either the ^Vashington 

 Greys of Philadelphia or the unit of the same desig- 

 nation of Reading, Pennsylvania. Prints of these two 

 organizations in U.S. Military Magazine ''" show 

 profiles on the shoulder-belts plates, although the 

 plate of the Reading unit is depicted as being oval. 



"5 JV«t) York Military Magazine (1841), vol. 1. p. 118. 



106 



April 1839, pi. 5; June 18.39, pi. 10. 



