Holster

Status

Not on view

Label Text

When traveling long distances, gentlemen conveyed their identity and social standing to the strangers they encountered through visual cues such as the quality of their personal clothing and equipage. The scarlet and off-white livery lace on these pistol holsters and holster "caps" indicates they were used by a trusted mounted servant who would have been dressed in colors taken from the Washington coat of arms. Liveried servants may have used these items to house and protect their pistols from the elements during Washington's presidential tour of the United States from 1789 to 1791.

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Date1790-1800

Geography Possibly made - United StatesPossibly made - England

Medium/TechniqueFlax, wool, leather

DimensionsOverall (A.1): 18 in. × 10 3/8 in. × 1 1/4 in. (45.72 cm × 26.35 cm × 3.18 cm) Overall (A.2): 13 in. × 5 1/4 in. × 2 3/16 in. (33.02 cm × 13.34 cm × 5.56 cm)

Credit LineTransferred to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association through the generosity of John Augustine Washington III, 1860 Conservation courtesy of the Life Guard Society of Historic Mount Vernon

Object numberW-349/A.1-A.2

DescriptionA1:
Double tiered holster cap made from multiple layers of leather, linen, and buff broadcloth trimmed in a double row of red and off-white livery lace. The scalloped, three-pointed skirt is surmounted by a squat inverted teardrop shaped cover. The outermost layer of fabric on the cover is no longer associated with the piece. The skirt features the remnants of a leather tie at its center front and a half moon void in the upper most part of its body from which straps were passed to secure the cap to the saddle.

A2:
A tubular leather body with a flared bucket that abruptly tapers into an elongated neck. The top of the body features four integral loops self-fashioned from parallel punched holes, two on either side. The whole is formed from a piece of leather vertically seamed.
Published ReferencesCarol Borchert Cadou, The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York, NY: Hudson Hills Press, 2006), 82, 280.

James C. Rees, Treasures from Mount Vernon: George Washington Revealed (Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, 1999), 47.

Author unknown, "The Firearms of George Washington," The American Rifleman (February 1968): 23, 26.

Warren Moore, Weapons of the Revolution... and Accoutrements (New York, NY: Funk & Wagnalls, 1967), 188.

Harold L. Peterson, Arms and Armor in Colonial America, 1526-1783 (New York, NY: Bramhall House, 1956), 247.

Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, General Washington's Military Equipment (Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, 1963), 37-38.

Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, General Washington's Swords and Campaign Equipment: An Illustrated Catalogue of Military Memorabilia in the Mount Vernon Collection (Mount Vernon, VA: The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, 1948), 11, 32, 33.

Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, General Washington's Swords and Campaign Equipment: An Illustrated Catalogue of Military Memorabilia in the Mount Vernon Collection (Mount Vernon, VA: The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, 1944), 12, 32, 33.

Superintendents Diary, 19 January 1887, MVLA.

Harrison H. Dodge, Superintendent, to Lily Lee McLaughton, Regent, 3 February 1884, Superintendents Letters, MVLA.

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