Skrzydla husarskie - Kitowicz

Salvete Omnes,
[in Polish]
krotki zestaw cytatów o skrzydłach husarii koronnej i litewskiej epoki saskiej.

autor to konfederat barski  i  ksiądz Jędrzej Kitowicz, Opis obyczajów i zwyczajów za panowania Augusta III.
(dla urozmaicenia wpisu historyczne zdjęcia Edwarda Trzemeskiego z Sali Rycerskiej Zamku w Podhorcach, dzisiaj zamek ruina nieledwie kompletna  decyzja Stalina znajduje sie na Ukrainie).

Autorament Narodowy [a] w nim chorągwie hussarskie pancerne i lekkie, albo przedniéj straży; w litewskiém wojsku petychorskie chorągwie toż samo znaczyły, co w koronnem pancerne. 

Nazywał się ten gatunek wojska dla tego autoramentem polskim, iż zażywał stroju polskiego i
siądzeń na konie polskich, to jest kulbak, które nie były jednoforemne, ale podług gustu
każdego jeźdzca rozmaite[…]

Szeregowi usarscy zamiast lampartów używali wilczej skóry,[..] mieli z tyłu do zbroi przyśrubowane drewno od pasa nad wierszch głowy wysokie, nad tęż głowę zakrzywione, piórami długimi od końca do końca rzędem natchnięte, rozmaitymi kolorami wraz z piórami malowane, gałęź laurową lub palmową naśladujące, co czyniło dziwnie piękny widok, lecz takiego lauru nie wszystkie chorągwie używały.
[..] Pod innymi chorągwiami szeregowi na szyszakach mieli tylko kity z piór, pospolicie gęsich, farbowanych, albo też gałkę mosiężną okrągłą, na pręcie żelaznym grubym, na trzy cale długim, osadzoną.
 
 O skrzydlach w choragwiach litewskich:

[…] należy mi oddzielić to dla Litwy, czym się jej znaki usarskie od usarskich koronnych różniły. Ta zaś różnica na małej zawisła rzeczy: koronni usarze na plecach nosili skórę lamparta, jako się w swoim miejscu napisało, litewscy usarze nie nosili lampartów, tylko do lewego boku, siedząc na koniu, przypasowali wielkie skrzydło z strusich piór robione, zasłaniające cały bok konia i nogę jeźdźca od pasa aż do kostek, co dotychczas w herbie litewskim na pieniądzach i pieczęciach publicznych lepiej niż w opisaniu rozeznać możno. Sadzili się zaś tak na ozdobę pomienionego skrzydła, jak koronni na ozdobę lamparta..

Valete

(oryginalna pisownia z wydania)

Winged hussar circa 1770 - Osprey 1

Salve,
 two days ago I blogged about a reconstruction of a late winged hussar towarzysz by Osprey's team of authors - Mr. Vincent W. Rospond,writer,  and  painter Raffaele Ruggeri.

Today, again I am looking at the Osprey's winged hussar towarzysz and  I am showing my quick sketch - attempt to add some elements in that Osprey illustration to show how such late winged hussar could have appeared - it is rather conjectural,as period iconography is rather limited, or I should say it is limited to me. For now he is missing a bullet box and his sword.

 By the way his lance was called 'proporzec' and was longer than the 'pancerni'or 'light cavalry' (uhlans, pułki straży przedniej etc) 'dzida' or lance.

But I am not sure how long it was, but you can see some of its size in Bellotto's painting.
I took off his gloves as I do not know any period painting showing national cavalry wearing gloves during this period.

Nota bene another Polish military costume researcher Karol Linder (his book is titled 'Dawne wojsko Polskie') did reconstruct some period cavalry men wearing gloves (1950s ).
Additionally, according to the uniformed reforms introduced by the grand Crown Hetman Branicki of XI 1763, winged hussars were supposed to wear armour .
It is wonderful that Bellotto painted a proporzec-carrying towarzysz unit of Crown  winged hussars, even if the horsemen are this small :)

    Perhaps I should try to reconstruct a retainer, those soldiers carried no proporzec lance but fire arms and had a special uniform and headgear, and several musicians - a trumpeter and drummer, as drummers were particularly important in the late winged hussar  'chorągiew' (banners/companies).
Until the next time

Winged hussar circa 1770 - Osprey

Salve,
continuing from yesterday on the theme of winged hussars circa 1770, I copied, with the addition of  boots and left arm - the Osprey Polish armies winged hussar as it appears on plate B in the book.

 The author of the Osprey book,  Mr. Vincent w. Rospond, called this soldier from the above plate a 'Towarzycz* of Crown Hussars, c.1770 ( nota bene painted by Raffaele Ruggeri).
He goes on explaining that ''towarzycz*'' was a 'comrade', 'typically riding in the front rank with a lance.'

The description of the uniform:  'a tall quilted cap [...] had a red top. The comrades had  a medium blue zupan and facings. [ Presumably, as firstly the author describes an officer not shown in the plate, they wore a   'red kontusz -an over-jacket with split sleeves- lined in white' over their zupan but again in the text this part seems to address only the officer's uniform].  This lance pennant is halved in the uniform colours, red over blue. Waist sashes at this period were usually fastened by being wrapped around themselves' on the left side.'
Author even writes about the 'saddle cloth, it being red with blued edging,' although there is no saddle nor saddle cloth visible in the plate (page 44-45)
 My most important question about this reconstruction is with the depiction of the kontusz -  I have not seen this closing of the kontusz over the chest in any period art dating to XVIII century! By the way scholar Irena Turnau, in her book 'History of Dress in Central and Eastern Europe from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries, Warszawa 1991,' gives the following definition of kontusz - an outer caftan worn on the zupan. The cut was characterized by the back being formed down to the waist from a long rectangle of cloth, to which wedge-cut sides were added. The sleeves, slashed  from the armholes to the elbows and thrown to the back, were called 'wyloty'  and 'łapcie. '(Turnau :162)
 Also, the curious additions are two additional elements of his attire: the use of gloves and the 'pendant' across towarzysz's chest.

In order to see a beautiful example of period Polish nobleman attire one has to look at  the drawings and paintings of  Jean-Pierre Norblin de La Gourdaine, whom we call Jan Piotr Norblin in Poland :)
Here a great depiction of a nobleman national costume:

Depiction is finalised with an attribution of the source - the figure is based on a painting by Canaletto (Bellotto) in Anusiewicz.
Now this Anusiewicz is a curious one - the  Selected Bibliography on page 43 lists the following title;
Anusiewicz, Marion*(ed) & Bronislaw Gembarzewski , Zolnierz polsk* od 1697 do 1794 roku (Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej; Warsaw, 1963)

I have the book and the editorial page reads as follows:
Pod redakcją ogólną RADY MUZEALNEJ MUZEUM WOJSKA POLSKIEGO
Do druku przygotowała ZOFIA STEFAŃSKA
Konsultant ANDRZEJ NADOLSKI
Kolory plansz barwnych odtworzył STANISŁAW GEPNER
Okładką, obwolutę i stroną tytułową projektował WŁADYSŁAW BRYKCZYNSKI
Opracowanie graficzne JERZY CZERNY
Redaktor MARIAN ANUSIEWICZ
Redaktor techniczny ZYGMUNT PŁATEK

 This volume, number 2 of the series devoted to the history of the Polish fighting men from XI century to 1960, is always cited as pan Bronisław Gembarzewski's work - eg World Catalog

 Also, the name for  'comarade' spells 'towarzysz' in Polish and not 'towarzycz'
 - more to come :)
*original spelling

Winged hussars circa 1770 - Bellotto

Salve,
In November I posted a photo of XVIII century painting by Italian artists residing in Polish Kingdom Bernardo Bellotto showing Warsaw as seen then from the right bank of Vistula.
I wrote that you could see king's Royal uhlans there, detail of this painting below. But this is not the case.

Well, as you can see I had a rather tiny copy of a photo and I assumed that these were the Royal Uhlans, and my friend and winged hussaria historian Radek Sikora, via email, pointed to me that the colour of the riders' national uniforms, red 'kontusz' and navy blue 'żupan' underneath, correspond rather to the winged hussars uniforms of the period, in their final stages before conversion into the National Cavalry, and not to the uhlans, with their green uniforms

So I did some sketches of these hussaria uniforms of 1760s - showing towarzysz hussars.
I will continue this thread, as more sketches of  uniforms, arms and horse tack should follow

by the way the Osprey book on the Polish armies of 1770-94 has a very peculiar reconstruction of the winged hussar towarzysz, I will eventually copy the drawing and show you here with some discussion etc.
...
ps
I plan to address the pancerny (kozak) and petyhorcy cavalry of the same period, and other cavalry units of XVIII century Poland.
All comments and suggestions are always welcome.