December 10-13, 2024 Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/10/2024
Unknown British Artist. "4th Troop Officer, Warwickshire Yeomanry, c. 1795-96." Oil on canvas, 16 x 12 inches, within gilt frame. The Warwickshire Yeomanry was raised in 1794 as a cavalry regiment to defend the County of Warwick against the threatened invasion by France under Napoleon. Its first commanding officer was Heneage, 4th Earl of Aylesford and the Regiment comprised gentleman and yeoman of the County who gave their services voluntarily, furnishing their own uniforms, equipage and horses. Originally three troops strong, a fourth troop was added to the regiment the following year. The portrait is of a commissioned officer of the 4th Troop, painted in the original uniform of the troops, which consisted of a "hussar" jacket of French blue faced with green and trimmed with gold buttons and scale wings, buckskin breeches, and a bearskin-crested "Tarleton" helmet, with green turban and gilt plate bearing the troop's name. He has a pouch slung over his left shoulder by a buff sling and the buff swordbelt buckled around his waist is all but hid by the crimson, silk sprangwork sash denoting his status as an officer. In his left arm, he holds the saber formally adopted by the British Army for all of its light dragoons and hussars in 1796, but already popular among yeomanry corps prior to that date, being a pattern copied from the Prussian dragoon saber.