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Help identifying a US bridle rosette


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I have tentatively identified this as a CW era (give or take) cavalry bridle rosette. It is in rough shape. It is backed by lead/solder and looks to have had four pins in the back. One you can see smashed down and rusted into the back. They rusted through to the front, so you can see that they were at approx. 10:00, 11:30, 5:00, 6:00 when looking down at the face.

 

Can someone help with more information about this, perhaps narrow down the date range if possible?

 

Thanks for reading and for any help given.

post-156330-0-66678300-1420378254.jpg

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Here are some WWI era rosettes I have dug. I would say yours is earlier than that. It doesn't look like CW rosettes I have seen, I think it may date from around the Indian War period or just after.

post-155825-0-64231900-1420415680.jpg

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Dharmacy, thank you for your response and thank you for sharing your pics. Are you thinking of the intertwined "USA" rosette? I will tell you what I have found researching in the internet, with the caveat that you read all sorts of things on the internet. (This includes reading that your rosettes, which I agree are WWI era, are also civil war rosettes.)

 

The most specific description of bridle rosettes I found says the following (summarizing): Rosettes were found in artillery bridles and the M1859 was a stacked, circular "button" rosette, the M1862 had block lettered "US" and the M1863 was the intertwined "USA". This is from Ken Knopp at The Authentic Campaigner. Ken is offering a disclaimer on that post that he does not know this for sure and is simply relating what he has read others say. Apologies for no link but I am not able to cut and paste into this window.

 

This is a written description but no picture, so it's not clear what he describes as the M1862 looks like. But I have found my rosette, with the stockier and more widely spaced lettering, styled "S" with the little tails at the front and back, and the "U" with rounded corners but a very flat bottom, consistently identified as civil war. Many of the dug examples I have seen are in worse shape than mine, some are just fragments, and where provenance is given all seem to be dug from a civil war context.

 

I have also learned in my research that there are "US" scabbard rosettes which have a different look with a bumpy or stippled background, and there is a "US" bit rosette that is often identified as a bridle rosette which has two tabs, one at the top and one at the bottom.

 

That's what I have found but it is nothing definite. What I wrote above should be used as a starting point for research and not as anything close to a definitive answer. Hopefully someone with more expertise will confirm or correct what I have written above.

 

Thanks again for responding and sharing your finds.

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Yes I was thinking of the bit boss devices. I will look through some research books I have to see if I can find anything about bridal rosettes.

 

D.

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Found a pic of some rosette varieties in the Francis Lord Civil War Collectors Encyclopedia. The description is as follows:

 

Calvary bridle rosettes, stamped brass faces with raised "U.S." Solder-filled backs with wire loops embedded. 1 1/4 inch in diameter and 3/16 inch thick. Found in LaGrange TN.

 

Looks a pretty close match to me.

 

post-155825-0-57845800-1420503253.jpg

 

Sorry for the bad pic. It's not a scan, as I am doing this from a tablet.

 

D.

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