Water bottle carrier : Victorian Navy

Brown vegetable-tanned leather water bottle carrier of unidentified pattern but associated with the Victorian Navy. The water bottle this carrier was designed for would have been 6 1/2 inches in height with a circumference of 12 1/2 inches. The carrier is made from three pieces of leather: a stiff leather band which runs around the circumference of the bottle; a strap which runs underneath and over the top of the bottle; and a belt loop to secure the carrier to a waist belt. The band measures 2 inches in width and has been formed into a circle with overlapped ends secured with five copper rivets and stitching. The strap which measures 22 inches in length and 7/8 inches wide has been secured at one end into the seam of the band underneath one of the rivets. The strap passes towards the base of the bottle and has two right-angle turns as it runs underneath the bottle and up the other side before being secured between the band and the belt loop on the other side of the band with rivets and stitching. The strap continues towards the top of the bottle where there is a right-angle turn before the strap widens to 1 3/8 inches with a shaped cut in the leather to accommodate the top of the bottle. There is another right-angle fold before the strap is secured to a brass stud which has been stitched into the band of the carrier. A 2-inch-wide belt loop is stitched and secured with five rivets to the band. The loop is large enough to accommodate a belt up to 2 1/2 inches in width. The edges of all pieces of leather have an incised (tooled) decorative line along their edges. On the band a mark has been stamped and impressed into the leather. Within a circle the words 'VICTORIA NAVY' appear. Below the circle the number '165' has been stamped.

The use of rivets in addition to stitiching suggests a date of manufacture after June 1888 when the List of Changes 5540 notes that rivets were to be substituted for sewing as far as practicable for naval accoutrements 'as the threads have been found liable to deterioration'. After December 1888, a new enamelled water bottle was introduced for both land and sea service. However this bottle was not cylinderical in shape and could not have fitted into this type of carrier.