From 1841 the 9th Lancers were ordered to change from red jackets with blue facings, to blue jackets with red facings. This could have resulted in a dress sabretache with a red cloth ground, but they retained the blue ground and the same basic design, but improved. A Hanoverian crown surmounted the elaborate A R cypher, retained under Queen Victoria as a regimental distinction. There was also no inclusion of battle honours which were accumulating during their service in the Gwalior campaign and the Sikh Wars.
This sabretache differs from the one worn in the 1830s, mostly because of the adoption of the lace pattern around the edge to replace the Herringbone pattern. It is called Wave and Diamond or Double Wave. This pattern was also adopted for the pouch-belts and it is debatable as to what date the change took place. The tailors, Messrs Herbert & Co have a date of 1842, the year that the regiment sailed to India. However, the voyage east would have delayed the appearance of the lace. Contemporary prints and paintings show officers of the 9th in 1842 wearing the new blue uniforms together with pouch-belts that were a similar pattern to that worn previously i.e. Herringbone but with a red stripe down the centre instead of blue. The portrait of Lord Ellenborough shows him wearing the new lace pattern belt. He was an officer of the 9th from February 1844 to May 1846 so probably wore the same belt for those two years, and would have worn a sabretache like the one shown here.
