"Uniforms of the Hanovarian army 1801" Topic

Hi,

Would they be wearing uniforms similar to the British army of the same period or would they still be in the 1794 type uniform?

28mm Figure suggestions for Hanoverians?

Cheers
Jesper

Knoetel doesn't mention any change from 1794 uniform, and they're not out long enough in 1803 for many field expedients--or much record.

Why 1801?

I am exploring some Alternativ history for my Perry Danes. One of those is that Denmark decides not to join the Armed neutrality alliance with Russia, Prussia and Sweden in 1801. In response Prussia with Russian support invades Holstein and Sweden attacks Norway, Denmark gets help from Hannover and Great Britain.

Hmm. Interesting. Well, what I said earlier holds. But I'll offer free advise, worth as much as you paid for it: even if you can find some uniform oddity which exactly nails 1801, remember that sooner of later miniature armies are sold, and the market for an army which never really went to war can be pretty limited. In your position, I'd stick with 1794.

Hanoverian infantry of your period of interest- from contemporary drawings in the British Royal collection.

See illustration and notes below- a phone picture from one of my books!

link

The Hanoverian infantry went through the same radical re-styling as the British in this period. The estimated date of 1798 may look a little early but is based I think on the judgement of Dr Frederich Schirmer- one of the foremost C20th experts on the army of Electoral Hanover. Pre-1803 most certainly. Quite likely some units still wore the old pattern uniform alongside others in the new style- as did the British.

For figures the Perry British 1801-7 infantry would be a pretty reasonable match. With substitute officers (different sashes) and standard bearers (Hanoverians still used the old baroque style colours), you could create some dual use Hanoverian/early British units!

The uniforms of the last years of Electoral Hanover are not at all well covered and some of the best material is in the Royal collection. There is another set of illustrations from 1795-6 which gives an important detail rarely shown elsewhere- that all cavalry regiments, light and heavy, had a 'summer field uniform' where their dark blue coats were replaced with short white single breasted jackets- which would have given them a rather 'Austrian' appearance.

Hope that helps.

Thanks,

Cheers

Jesper

@seneffe

Very interesting, do you have links for the 1796 uniform??

Hi von W.

Hopefully the link below works. The catalogue I have only contains these descriptions- no illustrations. If you write nicely to the Queen she might send you some.

Although not illustrated the description of the white garment is clear- it is not just the waistcoat, but is a jacket bearing regimental facings.

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Check these out:

Circa 1791….
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great, in pencil under the plates the regiments

Also see: Lawson, Cecil C. P., active 1907-1914 (artist) Date Created:1954-1955 Genre:watercolors (paintings) Collection Title:Prints, Drawings, and Watercolors from the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection – troops entering Bruges 28, February 1793 and departing 13 December 1793 :
5th Inf Regt link
4th Inf Regt link
Guard Inf Regt link
7th Inf Regt link
11th Inf Regt link

So what 28mm figures for the 1794 uniform, AWI looks closest to the material shown.

Little bit more checking. Hanover 1802.

link

So we have:

- an officer of the 4th Infantry in the old pattern uniform as worn in the revolutionary wars.

- an officer of the Hanoverian Footguards wearing the new pattern uniform with closed front lapels- exactly like a British Footguards officer of the same date. Assuming the rank and file had also adopted the new style- then they would look like the shako wearing figure in the first contemporary print I linked. Grenadiers in bearskins at least for parade.

- a Grenadier of the 5th line infantry regiment. The coat he is wearing is the early version of the coatee worn by the British and KGL in the Napoleonic wars. The very first British versions looked like this too. His headgear is the bearskin cap worn since 1785. The bearskin cap was also the regulation headgear for British grenadiers of the 1801 period, and they were worn by units in the UK for parades etc, but replaced by a shako in the field. As for the headgear of the ordinary line infantry companies- my guess is shakos replacing bicornes regiment by regiment.

So-the Hanoverians are in a mix of styles in this transitional period, with the oldest style looking somewhat like the AWI British uniform, and the newest style looking very like early Napoleonic British. In between the two it is likely that some regiments had the 'Napoleonic style' coatee but with the bicorne.

You have quite a lot of choice then and a fair amount of contemporary evidence to back up whatever your preferred option is. Lucky you!

Some further illustrations….