Horse soldiers of Duchy of Warsaw - prints circa 1831AD

 Salvete Omnes,

a quick entry - Dog days of the summer - 

ad rem, one of my favorite periods in Polish uniform history is the Duchy of Warsaw: 1806-1815AD , during the Napoleonic Wars.

Poniatowski and his staff in Krakow's Sukiennice 1809, Stachowicz pinxit

Stachowicz, Michał (1768-1825) conceived the idea and drawings while a German engraver Sebastian Langer (1772-1841) executed the prints for a publication in Krakow (then a so called Free City of Krakow) in 1831.

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Valete

Gabriel Raspe and his Polish-Lithuanian Cavalry circa 1775

 Salvete Omnes,

a little bit about our Polish cavalry circa 1775. 

in 1781 Gabriel N. Raspe (1712-1785) of Nuremberg published a book devoted to the Polish Royal Army, its organisation and uniforms -
Accurate Vorstellung der Königlich Pohlnischen Armee nach der auf dem in Jahre 1775 [..].

Polish army was reformed by the royal military commission in 1775 and these uniforms etc were in use until the next reform of 1785.

As of the final reform 1775-76 our Polish-Lithuanian Cavalry consisted of :

Crown Horse Guard dragoon Regiment - regiment gwardii konnej koronnej aka dragoni mirowscy - one of the most famous and experienced Polish cavalry units of the XVIII century. 

Ducal Guard Dragoon Regiment - regiment gwardii konnej litewskiej

National Cavalry Brigades or line cavalry - Kawaleria Narodowa - for the Crown and Duchy(Lithuanian) armies
Lithuanian or Ducal army had one Cavalry Brigade named 1st Hussar, referring to the abolished winged hussar banners.

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6 Dragoon line cavalry of the Crown regiments  - dragonskie regimenty koronne - 

Regiments of  Ulan-lancers or Advance Guard Reguments -  pulki ulanow koronne i litewskie

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Royal Uhlan Regiment - Pulk Ulanow Nadworny

The original digitized publication - the plates and description - is   available from Wroclaw University Library - FBC .

Polish cavalry  officer, researcher & artist Stanislaw Geper (1889-1965) created a copy of the 1781 Raspe's publication - available here.

Wiki Commons has the entire Gepner's version available for viewing and download.

I love these Polish army uniforms created after 1775 throughout 1791 , and I think they were the most wonderful emanation of our national costume. here in the military context. 

ps
Finally there is this article by Maciej Trabski on the National Cavalry of this period, and also the same researcher wrote this book on the uhlan and lancer regiments of the Crown Army 1768-94 - 'Pulki  Przedniej Strazy Koronnej ' from Inforteditions in Poland (all in Polish).

Valete

Uhlan - Kurhannoversches Scheither-Corps Ulan circa 1760

Salve,
quite interesting image surfaced on the Web - namely Wikipedia Commons - of an Uhlan (with a lance etc) that is described as a member of the Hanoverian army, a light cavalry unit known as Scheither-Corps (1758). Hanover fought on the side of Prussia and United Kingdom during the Seven Years War. However, the Seven Year War Project known as ''kronoskaf'' has a page devoted to the Scheither-Corps and there is no mention of any Uhlans.

He is dressed in a peculiar set of clothes, but his red 'czapka' with fur trim and feather (?) adornment, his red leather boots, red pants or ''szarawary'' are typical of the period for the Polish and Turkish cavalry, but the red dolman under his kaftan (by the way I think the artist had no concept of a ''kontusz'' or a kaftan with empty sleeves like the ancient Median kantuš) is more akin to the Bosniaken (Bosniaks),

light cavalry  with the Prussia,   armed with pikes/lances, sabre, perhaps pistols or carbine too.

In any event this uhlan reflects the fashion of Polish military of the first half of the XVIII century, although the dolman is a novum, for our Polish uhlans would wear a żupan under their kontusz or kurtka.  The similar uniforms were worn by the Polish Uhlans in Saxon service ( kronoskaf has two units reconstructed here and here), Gallica has an image of one Polish uhlan from 1736 (he appears to be wearing a kurtka), and there the uniform colours and lance pennon are generally the same (more on these early uhlans in the future) , so perhaps this horseman represents some rouge company that served with the Hanoverians, after having been taken prisoner or switched service under more profitable circumstances?

I like the way this artist represented the mount of this light cavalryman - a rather smaller, spirited war horse, and by the way a Luckner Hussar rides a similar horse, while perhaps it worth observing that quite similar mounts would appear in de Warnery's work on cavalry.

I should add that this uhlan is most likely  a towarzysz (following Polish miltiary tradition and enlistment), or a noble trooper thus armed with lance, as opposed to a pocztowy (retainer/trooper) that was armed with a carbine (cavalry musket) etc.

The officers of the 'Saxon'- Polish uhlan regiments wore a bow case hanging from their belts, perhaps a sing of their noble Tatar and equestrian tradition.

Finally, I played with this Uhlan a little bit, sketching with an ink pen (enjoying my manga Kuretake pen nibs & Hero manga fountain pen), and in the left corner included a sketch of the szarawary as they appeared in the period art, showing Polish cavalry etc. I did not give him a lance etc, as more sketches will come, I hope.

Enjoy