The officer in this painting is unnamed and the date is an estimate. The officer’s bay charger is well painted and shows off an elaborately decorated bridle studded with gilt or brass square plates, including a latticed headstall. This and the embroidery on the corners of the shabraque can be seen better in the 1829 portrait of Captain Williams. What is more interesting are the well-observed details of the officer’s uniform.
The heavy lance-cap, or czapka, leans precariously to the right side. This reproduction is unfortunately over-exposed but the plume can be seen to be the crimson and white cock-tail feathers. The shape of the czapka shows a rather slim ‘waist’ and looks almost entirely gold on the lower part. The gilt chin-scales are tied up above the front plate as we have seen in other images of officers and men, but this time there is a chin strap, presumably of black leather.
In line with other images, the officer’s chest is a complicated arrangement of gold cord and lace. The lace on the pouch-belt appears to leave a rather wide central crimson silk stripe. The silver pickers and boss are visible but the artist does not show the silver chains. The plaited gold aiguillettes are draped from the right shoulder over to the left. Of the two extra cords; one loops around his arm and the other hooks onto the highest button on the right side of his plastron front. In 1829 aiguillettes were discontinued for all regiments except the Household Cavalry. The cap lines look more formalised, winding around the body as a group of tree or four lines, from the right shoulder, with the flounders and tassels suspended from the left shoulder.
The colour of the trousers is blue in this painting, a shade or two paler than the jacket. The crimson cossack-style full-dress trousers of the regency period had been discontinued by this time. The mameluke sword stipulated in the 1822 Dress Regulations has been put aside, replaced here with the more usual light cavalry sabre, with a steel scabbard.
