goldfever79

It's a layer of black leather with gold thread stitching patterns. The only fabric on this piece is the red fabric sewn underneath the flaps that cover the cartridge cases. I'll pull it out and get some better close-ups posted when I have the time here in the next few days.

They are completely closed at the bottom. Unlike modern metallic cartridges the old paper cartridges for muzzleloaders had to be kept dry and stored much more carefully. In modern cartridge belts you just make the loop a little smaller than cartridge you are sliding into it, this concept wouldn't of worked with paper cartridges which were commonly just newspaper twisted around a pre-measured amount of power with a projectile on top then coated in tallow or beeswax.

Thanks for sharing, very interesting, lot's of great information! After reading that research on typical preservation treatments I will definitely reconsider putting Pecard's on this. Proper and steady temperature and humidity + no direct sunlight/uv light might be all a piece like this needs.

A few more pictures...

New member here, I collect all different sorts of antiques and regularly come across fine old leather items in need of restoration and/or preservation. Hoping to learn a lot more and also share when I come across a unique item or fun restoration project. Here is my current preservation project, a very fine European Aristocrat Huntsman's tooled leather cartridge belt (for paper cartridges) with game hangers and side pouches. Circa 1600-1850, I should be able to narrow down the date and a more exact location of production after further research. This is a pretty unique piece, I've never seen this quality leather work on a cartridge belt from this era. I've seen tooled leather paper cartridge boxes dating all the way back into the 1500s but never anything quite like this. All I'm going to do with this particular treasure is preserve it as is using Pecard Antique Leather Dressing, it doesn't need any repair work. I'll update with additional pictures after completing the antique leather treatment process. Feel free to add any comments.

Hi all, I've been browsing as a guest recently and just finally made an account. Most interested in antique leather restoration/preservation and researching the history of leather crafting. Looking forward to learning and sharing! Pete from North Carolina.