This unnamed officer of the 9th Lancers poses in a British setting, suggesting that he is home on leave from India. He wears a blue frock-coat which has six loops of flat black mohair across the front with the ends allowed to fall. The collar is folded back to form rounded lapels edged with mohair. The cuffs are pointed, edged in mohair and with black braid figuring inside the cuff area. He wears a dress waist-belt which is gold laced showing a red morocco edge and fastened with a snake clasp. The belt supports his sword which has a gold and crimson dress sword-knot. The undress trousers were blue with a double scarlet stripe. The collar of his stable jacket shows that it is scarlet with a gold lace edge that goes down the front of the blue jacket, with small gilt studs closely placed. The lace was Broken Bias pattern at that time.
A most interesting aspect of the portrait is the undress forage cap in his right hand. The 1845 Dress Regulations describe it as blue cloth with a gold netted purl button on top, gold braid crossing the top and a gold embroidered peak. They describe the Lancers’ cap-band as gold oak-leaf pattern lace, one and three quarter inches wide, but the pattern seen here is Austrian Wave which was worn by the regiment dating back to 1816 when they first became lancers.
The painting is by Mrs Augusta Elizabeth Samwell (née Cole). It comes from the collection of Anne S K Brown.
