19th C. French Hussar Officer's Shako and Cartridge Pouch - Model 1872

Western Europe, France, Third Republic. A French shako of Third Republic Model 1872 pattern with a matching officer's cartridge box. The shako has a blue felt body with a black leather top, headband, and visor, dressed with a brass link chinstrap chain, a brass hunting horn insignia at the front, and a pleated red and white metal rosette below an ovoid felt blue and white field badge. The white field of the badge would originally have carried metallic bullion cords outlining the blue center. Brass lion head hooks at each side secure the chain. The accompanying cartridge box is black leather with a brass frame and suspension fittings, the flap mounted with a brass eight-pointed star on a radiating sunburst plate. The Model 1872 regulations came directly out of the humiliation of the Franco-Prussian War: a defeated France reorganized its cavalry, standardized its headgear, and dressed its hussars in the light-blue and black that would carry them to the eve of 1914. The shako replaced earlier busby and czapka forms for hussar officers, retaining the hunting horn as the traditional emblem of light cavalry and the chin chain as both ornament and protection. The sabretache having fallen from use, the cartridge box (giberne) survived largely as parade regalia, its starburst plate meant to catch light across a reviewing field rather than to hold much powder. Item # 204472

Estimate:$500

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