Adjutant's Parade, 17th (Duke of Cambridge's Own) Lancers, 1895 (c)

Glass negative, W Gregory and Company, 51 Strand, London, 1895 (c).

This image comes from a collection of glass plate negatives associated with William Gregory and Company. The negatives depict the British Army, including some members of the colonial forces, 'at home' in Britain during the 1890s.

As well as being intimate portraits of soldiers from this era, the images provide detailed illustrations of uniforms worn during the high point of military tailoring.

The soldiers seen on parade in this photograph are wearing undress uniform with the full dress lancer cap, the design of which was based on the Polish four-cornered cap known as the czapka. It has a black leather skull and black patent leather peak with a band of gold lace around it. The upper part of the cap is made with ribbed cloth of regimental colour (white) on four sides, and is topped with leather. The drooping plume is made of horse hair of regimental colour (white), with a yellow and blue woollen boss where the plume attaches. The brass regimental plate is fixed on the lower part of the cap, with lion's head bosses on each side, to which the chin chains are attached. The sergeants seem to be wearing the pill-box forage cap.

The men are wearing a blue frock coat with collars of regimental white. They all have a lance made of ash, which was 9 foot long, and has a swallow-tailed pennon on the top which is red over white.

One of a collection of 280 glass negatives, associated with W Gregory and Company, London, and F G O Stuart, 1892 (c)-1900.