Unidentified Imperial-Looking Thing (UILT). Any clues?

[Peter R.]

An old friend of mine has this old pouch/pocket/container thing with an eagle on it. I think it might have come back with his grandfather who fought in Europe during WW1 - he also showed me a small bomb - the small type tossed from aeroplanes - that his grandfather also brought back, which was very cool except the comment 'I'm pretty sure it's deactivated... I think' lent some frisson to the experience

Anyway, I took some photos of it in the hope that somebody here might be able to tell us if it's first WW or older German or Austrian - or otherwise?

If nothing else, it does feel genuinely antique when you have it in hand. I don't think it's a modern repro of anything.

Thanks in advance,

Peter

[Peter R.]

And another photo

... another view

[Peter R.]

closer up

...zooming in.

[Dave Mosher]

Peter

It is Italian and I believe it was worn with a shoulder strap on the officer's dress uniform at least through the 1930s

Dave

[Peter R.]

Thanks very much for the reply Dave!

I'm surprised, I hadn't expected it to be Italian. When I see eagles I'm instantly drawn to think Austria/Hungary, Germany etc., even when not two-headed.

Any idea of what this was used for or meant to be - i.e. is it essentially officer's dress uniform 'bling', meant to look like a powder container from the old frontloading musket era?

[sabertasche]

Peter, can you show us some pics of the bomb?

Greg

[Mike Dwyer]

Thanks very much for the reply Dave!

I'm surprised, I hadn't expected it to be Italian. When I see eagles I'm instantly drawn to think Austria/Hungary, Germany etc., even when not two-headed.

Any idea of what this was used for or meant to be - i.e. is it essentially officer's dress uniform 'bling', meant to look like a powder container from the old frontloading musket era?

It's commonly known as a cartouche, it was originally a cartridge (bullet) container, but later it became more of a decorative part of the uniform. In most armies of the day it was more commonly associated with cavalry.

[Peter R.]

Dave, thanks for the extra info, much appreciated.

Greg, sorry I didn't take any photos of the bomb(let)... but if you're seriously interested in seeing it, I could always ask my friend to take some digipics and email them to me.

I think it's deactivated though. It sort of looked ike it might be (yes, I'm laughing at how ridiculous that statement is myself, given my lack of knowledge on these small WW1 bombs).

I find it hard to imagine that the authorities that be would have let a soldier bring back live ordnance from France/Flanders to Australia.

Right?

[Daniel Murphy]

Peter,
Most likely it is deactivated. However live ordnance was brought back to the states. I friend of mine who is a Deputy Sheriff had a German stick grenade his father brought back from WW2. He got it when his father passed away a couple years ago. He played with it tossing it around the living room on his shag rug. He thought one day, I better take this to the guy I know on the bomb squad and see if it is live. It was. His buddy deactivated it for him and he later sold it to me, and told the story. It was a minty 1944 dated one with the shrapnel sleeve still in place. At least he did not unscrew the bottom cap and say, I wonder what this string and ball do?
Dan Murphy
P.S. I still want photos of the bomb though.

[Peter R.]

Scary story. Good thing it was never left in the toybox for the kids to play with.

I'll see what I can do re photos of the WW1 bomblet. I call it that because it looks like a toy version of a big bomb - it has the fins and everything, but all up it's only 12 or 15 inches or so long. I can easily imagine pilots lobbing them out of open cockpits by hand.