RM1564 Late 18th century – early 19th century drum-style Wooden Canteen bearing its blue painted surface with Military Unit Markings. Wooden staved sides held in place with hand forged iron bands.
Measurements: 7 ¼” diameter x 4” deep.
“It is important to understand that the meaning of the word canteen evolved during the war as new styles became popular and old patterns fell by the wayside. Were it possible to ask a typical military man or civilian to describe a canteen in 1775, he would have almost certainly replied that it was a soldier’s drinking vessel made of tin. When tin became scarce in 1776, the procurement agents of states such as Maryland, Connecticut and Massachusetts began requesting ‘canteens or wooden bottles’. These were two distinctly different items and no one at the time would have mistaken a canteen for the little wooden kegs constructed of hoops and staves that had been known as ‘wooden bottles’ for a couple of centuries. But with the widespread distribution of the wood drum design in 1776-1777, the meaning of ‘canteen’ began to shift to those circular wooden containers with flat faces.”
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