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Friends,
I recently purchased this original French oilcloth knapsack and wanted to share. The previous owner purchased it from a collector out of TN over 50 years ago and used it for reenacting until putting into storage around 30 years ago. He noted that the original owner be bought it from lived outside of Shiloh and collected "local" CS items and also owned a good deal of Federal items purchased from old Bannerman stock.
The knapsack has seen better days. All of the original buckles/chapes are missing from the underside of the knapsack, while two of the three straps are missing from the outer flap. The mess kit strap and upper blanket straps are of course long gone. Although the roughly sewn pine frame is intact, the original owner added some glue to the inside corner to keep it from "rocking" itself apart. The bag itself has suffered some rips and tears primarily in the lower corners and on the edges of the inside compartment. The shoulder straps, interior straps and all of the trim is still intact.
There are a lot of interesting features, some of which were unexpected.
- The outer layer of cloth is a thin, tightly woven linen canvas that is painted black on BOTH sides. This layer is backed on the inside by a lining of very poor grade plain-woven jute which is kept in place by the leather trim stitching, strap stitching, and interior compartment seams. The lining is as rough as modern day burlap or jute sacking but is slightly finer in weave.
- The leather trim and straps were originally black but have faded and changed color over the years to a deep brown The trim is cut irregularly, overlapped in spots as a quick way of piecing, and crudely machine sewn. Note the remaining basting thread along the lower flap trim; it was simply never removed once the bag was completed!
- All remaining buckles appear to be galvanized zinc wire with tin sheet rollers. The replacement buckles and the two shoulder strap chapes were added sometime in the 1960's or 70's.
- The wooden insert appears to be rough cut white pine, nailed together, very light weight and removable.
- Stitching is a combination of machine and hand sewing. The leather edging trim and outer flap straps are machine sewn with what appears to be a finely twisted brown or natural (darkened with age) linen thread. The bag itself as well as all remaining straps are hand-sewn at 3 - 5 stitches per inch using doubled un-waxed natural linen thread.
- The leather-trimmed opening on the inside of the outer flap is intact and quickly hand-sewn into place. The compartment is simply the space between the painted linen and jute lining. The opening is so small that I can't see how anyone would be able to fit their hand inside, much less place any folded clothing or personal effects into it.
- A name or word is inked into the back of the knapsack bag. I was told that it was the last name "Mossier" but closer inspection seems to show that is actually spells "moisselon," "maisselon," or "m bisselon" It's been hard to read even after monkeying around with it in Photoshop.
If anyone has further questions or would like more photographs do not hesitate to ask! I'd also like to see how mine compares to the other original French knapsacks in regards to quality/method of construction and material.
Enjoy!
I recently purchased this original French oilcloth knapsack and wanted to share. The previous owner purchased it from a collector out of TN over 50 years ago and used it for reenacting until putting into storage around 30 years ago. He noted that the original owner be bought it from lived outside of Shiloh and collected "local" CS items and also owned a good deal of Federal items purchased from old Bannerman stock.
The knapsack has seen better days. All of the original buckles/chapes are missing from the underside of the knapsack, while two of the three straps are missing from the outer flap. The mess kit strap and upper blanket straps are of course long gone. Although the roughly sewn pine frame is intact, the original owner added some glue to the inside corner to keep it from "rocking" itself apart. The bag itself has suffered some rips and tears primarily in the lower corners and on the edges of the inside compartment. The shoulder straps, interior straps and all of the trim is still intact.
There are a lot of interesting features, some of which were unexpected.
- The outer layer of cloth is a thin, tightly woven linen canvas that is painted black on BOTH sides. This layer is backed on the inside by a lining of very poor grade plain-woven jute which is kept in place by the leather trim stitching, strap stitching, and interior compartment seams. The lining is as rough as modern day burlap or jute sacking but is slightly finer in weave.
- The leather trim and straps were originally black but have faded and changed color over the years to a deep brown The trim is cut irregularly, overlapped in spots as a quick way of piecing, and crudely machine sewn. Note the remaining basting thread along the lower flap trim; it was simply never removed once the bag was completed!
- All remaining buckles appear to be galvanized zinc wire with tin sheet rollers. The replacement buckles and the two shoulder strap chapes were added sometime in the 1960's or 70's.
- The wooden insert appears to be rough cut white pine, nailed together, very light weight and removable.
- Stitching is a combination of machine and hand sewing. The leather edging trim and outer flap straps are machine sewn with what appears to be a finely twisted brown or natural (darkened with age) linen thread. The bag itself as well as all remaining straps are hand-sewn at 3 - 5 stitches per inch using doubled un-waxed natural linen thread.
- The leather-trimmed opening on the inside of the outer flap is intact and quickly hand-sewn into place. The compartment is simply the space between the painted linen and jute lining. The opening is so small that I can't see how anyone would be able to fit their hand inside, much less place any folded clothing or personal effects into it.
- A name or word is inked into the back of the knapsack bag. I was told that it was the last name "Mossier" but closer inspection seems to show that is actually spells "moisselon," "maisselon," or "m bisselon" It's been hard to read even after monkeying around with it in Photoshop.
If anyone has further questions or would like more photographs do not hesitate to ask! I'd also like to see how mine compares to the other original French knapsacks in regards to quality/method of construction and material.
Enjoy!
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