Lyadunka officer of the Guards cavalry RIA

In 1859, for all officers of the cavalry and horse artillery, both guards and army, ladders with a silver lid of a single pattern were introduced: curly, edged with stamped twisted edging, with rounded corners and a toe in the lower part. As fittings, the lid was attached to: in the army cavalry, the state coat of arms in the color of the metal device, in the Guards, the silver–plated star of the Order of St. Andrew, one of the symbols of the Russian Guard. In 1889, the rectangular body of the old-style sling, to the bottom of which the ends of the sling were fastened, was replaced with a new oval one, with rings on the side walls, to which shaped hooks were attached at the ends of the sling. The body was covered with thin black leather. Since revolvers with a metal unitary cartridge have long served as firearms for officers, paper cartridge slots have disappeared from the case, and mordants (needles for cleaning the firing hole of the pistol) have disappeared from the sling. In this form, the officers' mess existed until 1917. In the early twentieth century, in order to reduce the cost, they were often made of base metals, silvered and gilded. An idea of the rarity of the object is given by the fact that as of 1909 the total number of officers in the Guards cavalry did not exceed 750-800 people. Lyadunka underwent restoration – the leather and braid were replaced, the lid and base were genuine.