Featured Antique leather rifle scabbards...

I purchased a box lot of antique leather rifle scabbards at auction a couple weeks ago. There had to have been at least twenty in the box. To my very pleasant surprise once I got the box home and took the scabbards out there was a big pile of stuff left in the box. At first glance it was junk. As soon as I started taking items out I realized I had a bunch of military belts and other uniform pieces. Most seem to be WWII. I’m sure I’ll need some help with those some day. For today I’m wondering if anyone knows anything about the scabbards? Many have a persons name and presumably the city they are from painted on the flap of the scabbard. About half do not have this personalization. A few have makers marks or stamped buttons on them to help identify age but most do not. I don’t have them handy so I can’t recall the age of the ones I did identify but I think they were early 20th Century. Would these have been used just for personal use, for competition, in battle, militia/military? Are they like “Wild West” era? They really stuck out to me as being very cool and interesting and I knew I wanted to have them but would love to know more about them now. Not sure if this is the right forum but I figured it was a good starting point.



This is one of the nicer examples. Many have damaged leather. Some minor damage some major.

Btw this one seems to have a Knights Templar association which is pretty neat.

 

Do a number of them say DeMolay on them? Shooting/riflery club/team? One shown belonged to some kid who was a member of a Masonic organization for boys.

 

Wow that was quick. Just edited post to mention Knights Templar graphic. This is the only one with De Molay that I recall. All different names and cities from around the country.

 

So you think it was a kids scabbard? Is that based on the size of the item or the personalization done? Few more photos below.

 

@ J Dagger

What is the length and width,no one can help without information.

 

I'm no help on them, but very cool. Good luck with your research.

 

Those are fraternal sword scabbards, not for rifles. K of C, Masonic, Templar etc etc. That should help you find values.

 

Well I’ll be damned! I had never seen a scabbard like this for a sword. I’ve seen similar scabbards for rifles so from the second I saw them I had guns on the mind. I never even thought about swords but you are correct. Are fraternal organizations the only ones who used this style of scabbard? I’m guessing no, but maybe yes? Seeing as I have a bunch without the personalization I’m wondering if any served another purpose? I wonder what happened to all those swords...There are very few for sale without the sword. Value seems to be maybe $20-$70 if I had to guess based on small sample size. Unfortunately this makes them less cool to me. Fortunately that means I won’t have quite as hard a time letting go and selling them and reclaiming that space.

 

Based on the fact that DeMolay is a fraternal organization for boys that feeds into the Masons, the way Rainbow Girls leads to Eastern Star.

 

That would seal the deal! Had never heard of either of these organizations. They both have an interesting little history. I can’t really imagine being part of one as a kid but I guess it’s similar to Boy Scouts in a way, without the outdoor skills component be necessarily. The further back in time you go I can see more relevance. Demolay still have 1500 members.