Officer c1825

This portrait shows the elaborate silver braid on the dress jacket. An inscription says that the sitter is George Poyntz Ricketts who served in the 1st Bengal Cavalry. The painting is on ivory, 9.7 x 8 cms. The style of braiding on the jacket agrees with other light dragoon and light cavalry jackets of the period c1820. The button loops follow the front of the collar and appear to flow over the shoulders. The braid on the cuffs is an intricate design based around an Austrian knot. The collar has simple braid following the edges. Both the collar and the cuff are devoid of silver lace which is seen on the later dress jackets. The colour of the facings in this painting is red. In December 1809 the regiments were ordered to wear French grey jackets faced with red, but another order of March 1810 changed it to orange facings for all the Bengal regiments. However, some of the regiments must have disobeyed this as an order of 1817 emphasised that red facings were not allowed in the cavalry.
George Poyntz Ricketts was born in 1808. His father was a civil servant and judge working in India, having the same name, also his grandfather who was Governor of Tobago and Barbados. So young George could have joined the regiment at the age of 17. The portrait was auctioned by Dix Noonan Webb in March 2014 who stated that Ricketts served in the 1st Afghan War and the two Sikh Wars.

Regimental Details | Uniforms