Spain, Franco Period. An Officer's Brocade & Cross Belt, c.1938

Both the waist belt and shoulder belt have uppers fabricated from gold-coloured bullion wire and yellow embroidery, bearing alternating lion and castle icons, each of the icons separated by an angled border, the underside of both in red rayon. The waist belt has leather tab with a smooth light brown upper stitched in place on the underside at the right end, the tab with ten rows of two holes each for length adjustment, brass receiving clip stitched in place on the left end, with a D-ring placed on the left side along the bottom edge, the belt missing its buckle on the right end, measuring 50 mm in width x 985 mm in length. The shoulder strap is composed of two pieces, with a slotted leather tab affixed to the clip securing the buckle to the body of the belt, the buckle itself composed of two pieces, the eagle in bronze gilt with red enamels and affixed to a 53.7 mm (w) x 75.2 mm (h) oval brass base, large brass hooks stitched in place on both ends of the strap, the shorter piece affixed to the left end, the longer of the two pieces housing a half-moon shaped brass plate with an ornate design on the end, with a voided oval plate incorporating a similar ornate design at the opposite end where the shorter of the two pieces terminate, with a brass slider in between, the belt measuring 50 mm in width x 1,030 mm in length. The weather flap on the artillery pouch is finished in black patent leather on the exterior, with the Spanish coat-of-arms bearing the Franco crown in bronze placed in the centre on the front and featured in an ornate rectangular frame, the underside of the weather flap finished in red leather, with a black patent finished slotted leather tab affixed, and when attached to the brass post on bottom of the pouch, ensures a snug closure. The interior and exterior of the pouch itself is finished in red leather, with metal plates held in place via five pins on both ends, each of the plates with a loop for suspending from a belt, the pouch measuring 150 mm in width x 70 mm in height x 31 mm in depth. The belt and shoulder strap exhibit light soiling on their red rayon undersides, the pouch with scratches and crazing in the black patent leather finish and scuffing in the red leather on its reverse. As worn.