This full length portrait of Captain Robert Frith was painted by Arthur William Devis. The exact date is not known but is either 1791 or 1793. The jacket is red with dark blue facings and silver buttons and braid frogging. The shoulder chains are triangular with three buttons and a fringe. The blue collar and cuffs are edged with silver braid and there are two buttons on each cuff. His broad black leather waist-belt has a clasp, rectangular with a star device and a figure 1 in the centre. The belt supports a curved sword and a sabretache decorated with leopardskin.
The black helmet has a metal comb on top which has a red flowing mane and a red turban held by silver chains. There is a silver crescent on the front and the front of the metal comb has a Gorgon’s head device. In 1802 an order of 18 February decreed that a different helmet be adopted. It was the Tarleton light dragoon type as worn by the regular British light cavalry regiments, having a black bearskin crest and white over red plume on the left side and a leopardskin turban. A miniature of Walker Dawson Fawcet of the 2nd Bengal Native Cavalry depicts this helmet. But some contemporary paintings indicate that the black bearskin was replaced by a non-regulation flowing red mane. The helmet was worn until c1812 when the shako was introduced.
