December 10-13, 2024 Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/10/2024
UNKNOWN BRITISH ARTIST. An Officer of the 21st Regiment of Light Dragoons, c. 1794." Watercolor on ivory, 2 1/2 x 2 in. oval, within rose gold locket and hanging loop; on the reverse is a braided locket of brown hair set within an oval, framed in rose gold and within a blue enamel ground. The 21st Light Dragoons were raised in northern England in 1794 and judging by the cut and trimmings of the uniform and the style of the sitter's hair, must have been painted in the first year of the unit's existence. It participated in the Santo Domingo Expedition of 1795 and its survivors returned to England in 1798.
The miniature accurately depicts the officer's uniform in great detail, with scaled silver wings on the shoulders, the blue jacket trimmed with silver cord and buttons and the swordbelt bearing an oblong silver plate with a crown over GR, the latter flanked by 21 and D. CONDITION: there is a crack across the glazing of the reverse, running diagonally across at the bottom of the oval inset, stable and not too apparent being over the blue enamel ground; otherwise very good overall.