Posts: 249 Location: New Zealand
Sat 30 Jun, 2018 2:24 pm
This looks like a ringing lance. Taking rings of various sizes with a lance was a popular sport in the 19th century, and is possibly still the national sport of one of the States, Maryland I think. The idea was to gallop along a line, using a light lance with a super fine tip (sound familiar?) and take rings of varying sizes hanging from a piece of light twine or the like, right down to about 1/4" if I remember right. It would obviously be great training for cavalry, especially in the Southern States which put a great emphasis on their cavalry, but the sport was open to all, men and women, and probably children.
I have a nice little book called "The Ring Tournament in the United States" by Esther J Crooks and Ruth W Crooks, published in 1936 (it doesn't look to have ever been republished) that covers it all very well. There are a few photos of riders holding lances which look just like what you have there. If you want to research it more, copies are available on Abebooks etc at reasonable prices:
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-home-_-Results&an=crooks&tn=the+ring+tournament+in+the+United+States&kn=&isbn=
If you google search (and ignore all the WWF etc) you will find pictures of the modern sport too.
It is definitely not a military lance either, the leather piece is too flimsy to give real protection to the hand or provide a stop if you hit something hard, but perfect to protect from a ring whacking your hand (and I know from experience that hurts, and leaves a bruise). The condition of the leather suggests to me it could date to the final popularity of ring lancing pre-WW2, but could also be 19th century.