Saturday 11 December 2010

Royal Navy Midshipman, full dress

This is another of the 1748-pattern British Royal Navy uniforms. Around 1758 a white collar patch with button and twist loop was introduced. For daily wear aboard ship a much less formal dress was worn, often more or less the same as the slops worn by the crew.

Thanks to Moshe again, as this was another of the templates I designed for him.

7 comments:

  1. Having been a Midshipman and a Captain, I must say, Captains are snappier dressers and they have much more fun...

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  2. Hi Bill,

    Ah, but you have to start at the bottom to appreciate getting to the top. ;-)

    Thanks for commenting.

    Hope all's going well.

    All the best,

    David.

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  3. Hi David

    Nicely done, as always. Interesting snippet about midshipmen usually dressing down for daily wear.

    Just out of interest, what is (and who painted) the picture at the top of your blog. I'm guessing it's of British light dragoons at Emsdorf, but it's really full of life. I'm wondering if the artist did any more 18th century paintings.

    Have a good Christmas
    Adam

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  4. Hi Adam,

    Thanks.

    I picked that picture up off the Net sometime - believe it's out of copyright. Yes, it depicts British 15th Light Dragoons and prisoners after Emsdorf. The artist's name is at the bottom right, not visible here; it's not really properly readable on the original I have but is apparently Gilbert H....... [the rest not readable]. It would be good to know exactly who it is and what else he did; as you say, it's a nice lively piece.

    Hope you have a good Christmas and New Year too. :-)

    Cheers,

    David.

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  5. This mystery has had me trawling the net for the last hour or so. After much searching I've only been able to find the same painting in one other place on the internet but it doesn't give the name of the artist. It was a larger image, though, and it seemed like the first three letters of the surname are 'H-o-l'. So I just typed 'Gilbert Hol' into google and the search complete function came up with 'Gilbert Holiday', a painter who mainly did equestrian scenes (usually racing) but some military subjects as well. I've looked at a few more of his pictures and they seem to be similar in style. I think he may well be our man, but if that's the case I don't think we can expect many 18th century scenes.

    There are a couple and a biography at the following link but I can't find loads of his paintings on the internet (especially the military ones).

    http://stephenpritchard.co.uk/html/gilbert_holiday_prints_for_sal.html

    http://www.lightdragoons.org/archive/forces/armyunits/britishcavalry/15thltdragoonsemsdorf.htm


    Best wishes
    Adam

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  6. In fact I think this proves it is definitely our man. You can zoom in on his signature on this picture of the 1914 Christmas Truce and it is the same:

    http://www.art.co.uk/products/p12372859-sa-i1738292/gilbert-holiday-english-and-german-troops-fraternising-on-christmas-day.htm?sorig=cat&sorigid=0&dimvals=5064324&ui=4358a1664d2f4593927d30e4b7837eb2


    It's a pity nobody is doing prints of the Emsdorf one. It's a cracker.

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  7. Hi Adam,

    Good detective work! Thanks for the links and information. As you say, it looks unlikely there'll be more 18th century topics from GH; pity.

    Thanks again.

    Cheers,

    David.

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