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HomeContentsVisual indexes > Studio of Charles Clarkington (246 Regent St., London)

 
  
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Studio of Charles Clarkington (246 Regent St., London) 
Military officer 
n.d. 
  
Carte de visite 
Private collection of William Jones 
 
LL/74216 
  
Tim Pickles (Facebook, "Queen Victoria's Soldiers and Sailors", 27 March 2017) wrote:
 
"I believe him to be a full colonel on the staff the one question being his plume. The tunic is the 1857 or posibly a 55 altered to single breasted (I have one with such an alteration in my collection). Rank is indicated by a crown and star on the collar, which could also mean captain but the collar has lace all around and there are two rows of lace on the cuff indicating a field officer. His belt is the crimson staff version with two embroidered gold lines near the edges (generals had three). He has the pre 1855 tall cocked with the short 6 inch drooping swan feather plume. difficult to see the details of his sword but it is probably the 1845 gothic hilt with a brass scabbard. Interestingly he seems to have the old style staff sword knot attached rather the axon version on a cord. Putting all that together I would say this is a staff officer in his new uniform very close to the date of change.
 
Oh, my question about the plume, My mind is a bit fuzzy but I think that pre 57 the ranks below General had an erect feather plume subsequently changed to a drooping one, however the height of the hat was reduced too so the proportion was fine, the plume in the picture looks ridiculously small, so perhaps he had not got his new hat yet." 
 

 
  
 
  
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