Very nice work. In your study, what time frame would you give to a double ringed bag of this style?
Thanks folks for the positive feedback.
James-What I know about the history of the German bags could fit in a tea cup and comes from two sources. The first is the great interview from Contemporary Makers by Eric Ewing that you, Eric Fleischer, Ron Scott and Steve Radosevich participated in. For those unfamiliar with this blog post but interested, here is the link.
https://contemporarymakers.blogspot.com/2016/05/jagdtaschen-game-bags-by-eric-ewing.htmlThe second source of information is the 1908 repo catalog of German hunting gear which has nine pages of bags with illustrations. Translations of the German descriptions provide clues about materials, sizes and finishes. I studied these bags and then wandered off and constructed what came to mind with the materials that I had at hand. I’m sure the Germans never used salmon leather for anything. Too, the two-tone finish that I did is probably unique. Anyway, from the blog interviews it seems that there is little definitive information about when bag features evolved but that the general appearance and styles probably were quite early and endured pretty much unchanged well into the cartridge era.
As with other muzzleloading accessories that I have made that have little written history available I remain blissfully ignorant about a lot of details and simply follow my instincts and make what ever comes to mind.
Dennis