22nd Native Infantry, brass 24mm, worn 1858-1878

The large sized 24mm brass button of the 22nd Native Infantry has the standard design of the regimental number within a broken wreath and circle with a dot above. It has the backmark SMITH, KEMP, & WRIGHT, BIRMINGHAM and is in very good condition. These simple numbered buttons were introduced after the disruption to the Army and its re-organisation after the Mutiny of 1857 and were in use in all three Presidency Armies for the next twenty years. They seem especially hard to find and, of course, many of the Bengal regiments which had mutinied disappeared from the line or were reduced to a cadre of officers.       sep11/2