Description

These are priced individually.

There are many bandolier box tops that have been handmade; possibly by the soldiers themselves, the wooden box lid being the most likely to split and be rendered useless. These are all made differently but follow a similar principal. There are two pieces of metal; one for the ring that goes around the spout and one the flat cap with rings on either side for the strings to pass through. The inside of the loops are rounded and often the outsides too so that they appear to be like wire. The lids are soldered but none of it has seeped through to the inside of the lid. That is likely so the spout of the box has a smooth area to move in and out of. The solder on the outside of the box is rounded, I suspect because a very hot liquid solder would also melt the metal on the lid. I have aged some pewter and it looks the same as those in the ground for hundreds of years. The metal is most likely pewter and not led which can easily be marked with a finger nail.

After some years of research and practise, my wife and I (she is a much better solderer than me) have been able to recreate the originals using tools that would have been readily available at the time. One of the pictures you can view here shows one of my lids next to an original.

If you would like to replace a few lids on a wooden top bandolier, these will look ideal. You could always replace all the lids if you like. These lids are all hand made and each will look different so there is no problem of a uniform look that would not be appropriate for a ‘repaired’ bandolier.

If you would like a pewter topped bandolier from the outset, choose the one I have on here and specify these non-mass produced lids and I will ensure your bandolier has these lids and not the normal lost-wax-cast ones I normally provide. It is possible some bandoliers were ordered with metal lids and some with wooden lids. My lost-wax-cast ones reflect the former and these soldered ones the latter. Since the spouts of charge boxes is nearly always 16mm, that is the size these will fit.