The Honourable Artillery Company Victorian Officers Shoulder Belt Plate

The Honourable Artillery Company Victorian Officers Shoulder Belt Plate - this is a magnificent example being a silver backplate on this a blazing shell or grenade with the flames in bright gilt. To the centre in gilt over silver, Queen Victoria’s monogram surrounded with gilt circlet surmounted with a Victorian Crown. Price includes delivery within the UK. Additional charges apply for international shipping.

The fire-gilt flames against the silvered backplate really do stand out, and the reverse shows the classic Victorian fittings: the hook-and-eye loop at top, the sliding bar (now a bit bent) with its two studs, and the two lugs that would have held the leather belt loops in place.

The burning grenade is the HAC's long-standing badge, tying back to their origins as a body of "artillery" (in the old sense of missile-throwing arms, including grenadiers).

The interlaced VR cipher under a Royal Crown, set within the grenade's ball, is exactly what you'd expect on Victorian-era volunteer/yeomanry plates once regiments began incorporating the sovereign's monogram after various mid-19th-century reorganisations.

The quality of the silver-gilt work, deep, well-modelled flames, a separately applied and gilded cipher is consistent with an officer's plate rather than an other-ranks' issue, which were typically plain stamped brass.

The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) is based at Finsbury Barracks in the City of London and holds the distinction of being the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, having received its Royal Charter from King Henry VIII in 1537.