I guess lightning can strike twice, and this is very much the case here. Earlier this year I was lucky to find one of these, and quite by chance I've managed to find another. This is a 1904 US Army brown duck canvas fatigue shirt, known formally as Coat, Canvas, Fatigue, specification No. 612. These were adopted by the army in 1903, and would be used until replaced with blue denim around 1918. To be honest, I don't know a huge amount about these given their extreme age and rarity. They were worn for dirty chores, designed to be hard wearing and easily cleaned, and came in both 5 and 6 button varieties. A serious serious collectors piece. There is an excellent write up on brown denim in the US Army available here which discusses this shirt in more detail.
Condition
This is in stunning vintage condition! The fading of the colours alone is incredible, there are browns, reds, greys and khakis all in there. Look carefully at the split pin donut button with a slight bit of rusting, these being very common on late 19th/early 20th century denim pieces! The cotton tag has long since gone, but you can just see a couple of stitches left where it once would have sat inside the button placket.
On the top of the button placket is a white tag which is either a catalogue reference number (this may have come from a Hollywood costume house), or it's a surplus price of $1.25!
Size
- No tag but fits a modern medium
- Pit to pit 20"
- Shoulder to shoulder 19.5"
- Shoulder to cuff 20"
- Collar to hem27"