"Sample of a typical Napoleonic Prussian uniform?" Topic

This auction on eBay is for a Prussian dress frock. The seller has no firm date of fabrication. It's a very interesting sample, however.

auction

I'd like some commentary on it's colouring (the blue is lighter than I expected for instance). Is it even relevant to the Napoleonic era or does it come from a later period?

I must admit that I was skeptical at first, but when I realised that it had been in Canada for a while I thought to myself that perhaps the sun's reflection off the snow had bleached it a bit. Not.

Don't do it.

I'm not looking to buy it! :) I was looking at it as a painting reference and so forth.

I'm no expert, but the style looks more late 19th Century than early, The hand-sewing is a red herring. A general or even a field grade officer would have had his uniforms made by a tailor and would expect hand work, even during the Great War.

As to the color, fading is one possibility, but there is another. Under Prussian regulations a general who was a Regimental Inahber was allowed to wear the uniform of "his" regiment, with the appropriate rank distinctions. So the original owner could have been Inhaber of a Dragoon regiment. And the color of this coat looks very much like the blue worn by Prussian Dragoons.

something about the beginning of the sleeves where they attach to the coat do not seem 1813 when that area had a more poofed out look as in comparison to later 1800's. not sure

What's the monogram?? An 'FF' ???

The cut is too modern, so it is definitely not a Napoleonic item, but a (maybe nice looking, but in many aspects incorrect) reconstruction.

For example, the embroidery on collar and cuffs should be golden threads (similar to the embroidery of the order on the breast). The embroidery on this uniform seems to have been made with a machine instead.