Garde te Paard Question

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DHautpol
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Garde te Paard Question

Post by DHautpol » Wed May 30, 2018 5:42 pm

I am about to paint a cavalry unit to represent the Garde te Paard during the WGA period and I have been thinking about the hats. Wargamers seem to like something unusual and all the images I have found show units wearing various shades of buff hats. Sapherson* says that the regiment wore buff hats and he cites Lawson** as his source; I have a copy of Lawson’s work in front of me and on page 98 he says “The picture at Kensington Palace shows a detachment of Horse evidently intended for this regiment [Horse Guards]. They are dressed in blue coats with about eight gold loops down the front but no cipher is shown (Fig.65). The cuffs are also blue edged with gold lace. The hats are buff-coloured and laced with gold. The holster caps are red (Fig.66).” The great majority of Lawson’s illustrations were copied by him from existing works and the List of Illustrations (page xiv) identifies Fig.65 as “Dutch or 4th Troop of Life Guards, c.1691, from painting in Kensington Palace” and Fig.66 as “Dutch Garde te Paard, or Horse Guards, c.1691, from painting of the Battle of the Boyne by Romyn de Hooge, and a picture in Kensington Palace”.

I have Googled “Battle of the Boyne” with “Romyn de Hooge” and found one image from History Ireland depicting a cavalry melee at Oldbridge. The image is quite small and does not enlarge particularly well but I cannot see any blue coated troopers in buff hats in the picture.

Does anybody have more details of the paintings Lawson is referring to that might make an online search easier? Or, does anybody have any alternative sources that are not ultimately based on Lawson. I also appreciate that paintings, even contemporary ones, may not be wholly accurate; the artist is creating a ‘message’ not necessarily a historical record. I have found paintings of William III at the Boyne in red coat, a blue coat and a grey coat; either he took a large wardrobe or some paintings are less than spot-on.

Another possible factor is that the Garde may have worn such buff hats during a particular period, maybe due to shortages, and been issued with more likely black hats at the next issue; would they have been issued with new hats annually or bi-annually?

* Sapherson, C.A. Dutch Army of William III: Partizan Press; (Edition Jan. 1997)
** Lawson, Cecil C.P. A History of the Uniforms of the British Army: From the Beginnings to 1760, Volume 1: Norman Military Publications, (1940: Reprinted 1962)
Glorfindel
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Re: Garde te Paard Question

Post by Glorfindel » Thu May 31, 2018 9:36 am

I've had a look at the extensive Robert Hall CD but unfortunately, this just refers back to Lawson. I've also found a second painting by de Hooghe but can't see a large enough version to make out any details :

https://www.historyireland.com/early-mo ... ing-billy/


I think the answer may depend on how much time and effort you want to go to here. Either call it quits and go with gold edged buff or, If you are really (really !) keen, contact the lovely Lucy Worsley and ask !



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Re: Garde te Paard Question

Post by DHautpol » Fri Jun 01, 2018 1:31 pm

Hi Phil

Many thanks for that, I hoped that someone would check the Hall book; I'm still financially digesting the purchases of the French Infantry, Cavalry and Dragoons volumes, which even at P&SS members' prices are still a hit.

Your link goes through to the same picture that I found. Blue coated troopers can be seen by the village, left foreground, and across the river, right mid-ground; all seem to have blue cuffs and black hats.

A search of the Kensington Palace on-line collection did not throw up anything, although Lawson would have been doing his research nearly 80 years ago (Volume 1 was originally published in 1940) and there is no guarantee that the painting(s) still reside in the KP collection and do not now hang somewhere else. I've also done some one-line searches for "William III" and "Battle of the Boyne" and scrutinised the figures in the backgrounds of the images found, but to no avail.

I think that I will paint about half of them in black hats (including the officers, who would have purchased their own) and the remainder in a mixture of light and dark grey and light and dark browns.

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Re: Garde te Paard Question

Post by Clibinarium » Sat Jun 02, 2018 1:28 pm

No colour, but a good zoomable image of an engraving;
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/zoeken/ob ... -79.460,36

Gardes are in the bottom right corner marked "9". I have seen colour versions of this image, but they are crude colourings that are clearly incorrect. I have never seen the original painting of this engraving, if indeed there is a painting. There could well be as engravings ere made to distribute the images in paintings, and on the Rijkmuseum site there are other engravings of well knowing paintings like Dirk Maas' Boyne painting;
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/zoeken/ob ... -82.799,30
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Re: Garde te Paard Question

Post by barr7430 » Mon Jun 04, 2018 7:00 pm

whether true or faux a beige hat would not have stayed beige long on campaign. All you'd need was a couple of blow backs from your pistols to have a black hat!
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Re: Garde te Paard Question

Post by DHautpol » Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:37 am

Sorry for not responding sooner, I forgot my password and, as I was on leave yesterday, didn't have access to it in my Outlook Contacts folder.

Clib - your engraving is the same image as the colour image that Gorfindel and I found at History Ireland, with the added bonus of a key describing who and where, it also blows-up into a sharper image too. Item 9 is the Garde du Corps rather than the Garde te Paard and the coloured image does show them in red.

I've painted just under half with various shades of beige for the hats and, funnily, it doesn't look as bad as I first thought it might. Leave it a while to grow on me and I might just go back and paint the remainder various beiges as well (officers excepted). Just the last few figures to varnish and then I can get them based up.
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