This fine portrait by Pompeo Bartoni shows the officer’s uniform at an important stage. The sitter is the Hon Otway Cusse of Co Kilkenny, 3rd Baron Desart in the Peerage of Ireland. He was on half pay as a captain when he exchanged into the 1st Royal Regiment on 6 Aug 1766 while they were in Ireland. In early 1768 they were posted to Gibraltar but Lord Desart was not a very diligent officer, preferring instead to travel to Italy where in late 1769 he was painted in Rome by Bartoni. The coat he wears is the expensively embroidered full dress coat which had elaborate buttonholes. An inspection return of 16 May 1769 remarks on the 2nd Battalion: ‘Officers - gold embroidered buttonholes’. Also in Standing Orders for the 1st Battalion on 9 May 1782: ‘Such officers who choose can wear the embroidered coat when in full dress, but not on duty.’ So this coat was for full dress occasions only while for dress parades and military duties the officers wore a coat with gold-laced buttonholes. Although the pattern for the embroidery changed by the end of the 18th century, this was to be a distinction of the 1st Royal Regiment until 1855.
The gilt buttons are regimental, having 1 in the centre of a circle. He has a gold epaulette on each shoulder which is puzzling because he held the rank of captain entitling him to only one epaulette on the right shoulder. Officers of the Grenadier Company and field officers wore two epaulettes but Desart was not a grenadier officer. Perhaps he ordered his tailor to add the extra epaulette, knowing that he would only wear the coat for the portrait. The turned-down collar and the new style cuffs follow the 1768 Regulations. The blue lapels can be seen to reach below the waist, and he has a white waistcoat that has pockets with decorative gilt buttons just below the flap and down the front. His tricorn hat has a gold-laced edge and appears to have a gold hat-band around the crown of the hat.
