Ammunition pouch and shoulder belt with percussion cap pocket : British and colonial forces

Blacked vegetable-tanned leather ammunition pouch with buff leather shoulder belt and percussion cap pocket. The pouch measures 10 inches wide, 8 inches high and 3 inches deep. It is made from five pieces of leather - front flap and back, front, left gusset, right gusset, and bottom gusset. The tops of the side gussets are semicircular in shape and have two additional pieces of leather inserted to provide rigidity. The corners of the front flap are very slightly moulded inwards. A trapezoid-shaped flat pocket of leather is stitched on to the front of the pouch for carrying flints and turnscrews. A strip of leather divided into two sections with sewing lines lies across the top edge of the pouch. A small tab of buff leather is secured under the centre seams of the strip. It has a circular cut with slit for attachment but it is not clear what this might attach to. The ends of the shoulder belt are threaded underneath this strip down the back of the pouch and secured to two iron buckles sewn under leather tabs to the base. The pouch is secured with a buff leather pointed billet sewn with blind stitching to the underside of the front flap. The billet has a circular cut with a straight slit that fits over a black plaited leather button fixed into the base of the pouch. Inside the bottom of the pouch lies a 2 inch high tin cartridge box divided into two compartments. On top of this sits a 2 6/8 inches high wooden magazine with twenty-six holes drilled into it to hold cartridges. The shoulder belt is made of buff leather and measures 65 inches in length. The main part of the belt is made from two pieces of sewn leather measuring 2 inches in width. At each end a pointed billet with eight holes for adjustment has been sewn on to the ends of the strap. A cap pocket measuring 4 1/4 inches wide, 4 inches high and 1 6/8 inches deep made of buff leather with a plain weave canvas gusset is threaded on to the shoulder belt. Two narrow buff leather strips sewn horizontally across the back of the pouch take the shoulder strap. The pouch is secured with a pointed billet with two holes and slits sewn into the lower back seam which passes over the front of the pouch over a small brass stud sewn into the front flap. 'SL 49' is stamped in ink on the inside flap of the cap pocket along with an illegible maker's mark.

This ammunition pouch and shoulder belt has previously been associated with the uniform of the Victorian Metroplitan Rifles of the 1870s. However it appears that the pouch and shoulder belt are from the early 1800s and were likely to have been obsolete around the 1820s. The cap pocket is unusual in that it fits square on to the shoulder belt and is not attached to an angled sleeve. Cap pockets attached to pouch belts were introduced in 1857 but withdrawn when the Snider-Enfield rifle was issued in 1866.