Field Officer’s Dress Jacket c1850

This pattern of jacket was worn by a major, lieutenant-colonel or colonel of the 10th Hussars, probably as early as c1830 but certainly from the mid 1840s. The cloth is dark blue and the lace and braid gold. There are five rows of gilt buttons, ball-shaped to fasten down the front, and half-ball for the decorative outer rows. The lace around the hem of the jacket also follows the back seams traced with Russia braid. Similar lace is on the top and bottom of the 3 inch high collar with braid in between so that the blue cloth cannot be seen. The cuffs have two layers of gold lace, the upper layer broader than the lower, traced with circles of Russia braid. Ranks below major had only one row of lace. The elaborate button looping across the chest is described as dead gold gimp chain-loops, the effect of the dead gold relieved by a looping of bright Russia braid. The gimp and braid are so tightly packed together as to give an impression of a solid layer of gold over the chest.
It may seem an unsuitable garment for somewhere like India where the regiment were posted from 1846 to 1855, but the regimental history says: ‘At balls and on dress occasions, the officers still appeared in the lace jacket with pelisse slung, and scarlet overalls, and at mess the blue stable jacket was always worn.’ This jacket would also have been worn in the Crimea in 1855-56 but on returning to England in 1856 it was replaced by the less decorative tunic.

Regimental Details | Uniforms