New acquisition WW I unidentified buckle

[Marc verstraete]

Hello all,

This is a buckle I recently acquired. What do the WWI guy's can tell me about this one?
Reid and Bandau describe it as Hanover Garde regt. But this one does not have the star around the centre. It looks like one of the Garde du corps buckles with no star I posted last week in a previous mail

Marc V.

[Marc verstraete]

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[Kurt Doench]

Hello Marc and everbody,

In the past, I have done some work on the buckles of the Royal Hanoverian army. The place to turn to is the Bomann Museum in Celle. They have a huge collection, some 50 buckles in all, and a lot of source material.

Box buckles were introduced for foot troops by a "General-Ordre" dated 17. 1. 1855. They were worn until the Kingdom of Hanover was incorporated into the kingdom of Prussia in 1866 after finding itself on the losing side of the Prusso-Austrian war of that year.

According to the "General-Ordre" cited above and another one from 1862, the Guard Regiment had a buckle with the star of St. George surrounded by "NUNQUAM RETRORSUS" (never go back), whereas the line regiments had the Cipher for King George V. in a laurel wreath.

The final official dimensions for these buckles were 55 mm x 70 mm, but there are size variations (private-purchase items?), including one "ca. 45mm x 60mm" (thus the museum catalogue), and they also have an old military belt that is 40mm wide. Their construction was different from the Prussian-type buckles, however. Most often, one large solder spot at the centre, with the "hollow" between shield and buckle body being totally filled with solder material. This makes it easy to spot copies, as not only is the size different, but these are much heavier than copies based on Prussian M/47 buckles. There are also variants with several solder spots, but never arranged in the typical Prussian 4-, 3- or 2-spot pattern.

Among the many buckles listed in the museum catalogue, there is none with the "St. George" motif without the star, and I have never seen one either.

Your buckle, while certainly not looking like a modern production piece, doesn't really match what we would think a pre-1866 buckle to look like.

Maybe (but I am speculating) we have the same situation here as with the Prussian Gurads star-buckles you posted in a previous thread. There was a pro-Guelphic faction in Hannover after 1866, which had various organisations. The Kingdom of Hannover was ruled by a line of the Guelph familiy who were forced into Austrian exile in 1866, but still had many sympathisers in Hannover, as Hanoverians at first bitterly resented having to become Prussian citizens (they called themselves "Muss-Preußen", forced Prussians). So possibly, this buckle might have been for such an organisation. These were tolerated by the Prussian authorities as they had no real political influence and were seen as rather harmless "tradition outfits".

Alternateively, it could also be for any number of traditional associations like "Schützenvereine", which have a strong tradition in the Hannover area.

Greetings,
Karl

[Marc verstraete]

Hello Karl,
Thank you very much for the very accurate information you are given me on this buckle and the “GdC” ones from the previous tread. One can see that you know your subject. It is a pleasure to see and I am very glad to have be able to meet you through this group.
I will categorise the buckles in question into the Weimar period buckles.
Also I definitely will try to visit the Celle museum.
Are you from Germany?
Marc V.