Ammunition pouch and shoulder belt : British and colonial forces

Blackened vegetable-tanned leather ammunition pouch with buff leather shoulder belt. 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 inch 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 nine holes for adjustment has been sewn on to the ends of the strap. There are no maker's or other marks.

This ammunition pouch and shoulder belt has previously been associated with the uniform of an artillery gunner of the New South Wales Military Forces. However it appears that the pouch is from the early 1800s and was likely to have become obsolete around the 1820s.