The new lancer-style of cavalry introduced in 1816, following the end of the Napoleonic war, sparked a great deal of interest amongst artists and printmakers. This painting is by Denis Dighton who was appointed Military Painter to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent in 1815. So this was produced to illustrate the new uniforms soon after they were adopted by the 9th Lancers.
Three orders of officers’ dress are shown. The officers on the left and right of the painting are in full dress, showing the back and front. The lance cap, or czapka, has a crimson top with the waist and black leather skull, well covered in gold and crimson lace. The chin scales were invariably tied up above the gilt front plate. There was a ‘peak’ at the back permanently turned up, and a large peak at the front edged in gold lace. The plume was of crimson and white cock-tail feathers. The jacket was waist-length with a small tail at the back, blue with crimson facings. The lapels were turned back in dress and full dress to form a plastron front, and the jacket fastened with hooks and eyes. The collar and cuffs were decorated with gold embroidery. Gold epaulettes on each shoulder only showed rank for field officers. Heavy gold cord auguillettes were attached to the right shoulder, hooked onto the front of the jacket. The gold cord cap lines wound around the body, finishing up as large tassels on the left shoulder. The pouch-belt was gold-laced with a crimson central stripe, silver chains and pickers, and a silver fronted pouch with gilt crown and cypher. A gold and crimson girdle was worn around the waist, and the trousers, called cossacks, were crimson with a single wide gold stripe down each side. The left hand figure shows the dress sabretache attached by three gold laced slings. The mameluke sword is a special regimental pattern, in a gilt and crimson velvet scabbard.
The mounted officer is generally said to show dress uniform as opposed to full dress, but the 1822 Dress Regulations tell us that the main difference between dress and full dress was the grey trousers with two gold stripes instead of the crimson cossacks with one gold stripe, one and three quarter inch wide. The jacket should be the same but the rider has his lapel buttoned over to conceal the crimson plastron. He also has an undress sabretache suspended on black leather slings. The other difference is the scabbard which for dress uniform was plain steel. The horse furniture consists of a blue shabraque edged in gold lace and embroidered with the reversed GR cypher and crown, a black sheepskin saddle cover, and a black leather bridle with a small red throat plume.
The officer standing second from the left is in undress. His czapka is smaller and has no regimental plate on the front. The peak is plain black and the plume is red and white horsehair. There are no chin-scales but the lace around the middle is wide, gold with crimson lines. The jacket is blue with gold lace around the collar and cuffs and down the front, fastened with hooks and eyes and decorated with closely placed small gilt studs. The back of the jacket had crimson welts along the seams and down the sleeves, like the dress jacket. The pouch-belt is the same as the one worn in dress, but the waist-belt is black leather with slings to match, and undress sabretache as worn by the mounted officer. The trousers are blue-grey with two three-quarter inch crimson cloth stripes down each side. The sword, again, is the mameluke type, although the 1822 DR describes it as being half-basket hilt and the blade only slightly curved.
A mounted lancer in the background, on the right of the picture, has a plain black leather sabretache and a white sheepskin saddle cover. His shabraque is edged in yellow and embroidered on the rear part. The uniforms of the four officers and the other rank were worn, with minor adjustments from 1817 until 1831 when they were ordered to have red jackets with blue facings.
