"Colour of belts of Russian infantry in the SYW" Topic

Crossbelts and waistbelts of regular infantry, that is.
Light (yellowish) brown, red brown or white?
Different sources, different answers …
Thank you for any clues.

According to the book by Leonov and Ulyanov "Regular Infantry 1698 – 1801", Crossbelts and waistbelts in the Russian infantry began to be whitened under Empress Elizabeth (1741 – 1756).

@grenadier corporal- good question, mate. I've not found a definitive answer, and Cuprum's post throws another possibility into the mix. I went with a darker "natural leather" purely on guesstimate and the fact that lighter leathers were possibly more expensive (Colonels saving pennies may have been a factor).

@ Cuprum2- good to see you back, mate. That's an interesting snippet. Do you know whether the Guard or Grenadiers led the way, or was it done across the board? My Russians are based on 1759-60, so would white belts be appropriate for some of the battalions, do you think?

From contemporary prints, I would say light brown for the infantry

link

As far as I could understand from the reviewed Russian articles on this topic, a lot of the regimental uniform during this period was left to the discretion of the regimental commander. Because of this, some deviations from the regulations were common.
In addition, I read in the descriptions of a contemporary that the white coloring of the belts was carried out by the soldier himself using a mixture of crushed chalk and rosin, this mixture was rubbed into the skin of the belt with the help of a pig's tooth. The belt was not varnished during this period. It can be assumed that during the campaign this procedure could be neglected and the "whiteness" quickly disappeared from the skin.

link

Officer & Private, Grenadier Regiment (1756-61). The unknown artist 18 c. Russian museum. St.-Petersburg.

Here is a very good source of uniform information on the Russian SYW army: link {Kronoskaf Seven Years War Project's web site}

You can look at the individual regiments to determine what color belting each had.

Jim

@Frederick, thanks for the link. The belts look close to buff, with some looking like the white Cuprum mentioned.

@Cuprum, I agree. Once on campaign energies would be put into keeping their equipment and clothing in good repair and what would be a long process would probably be relegated to only being done for inspections or guards, if then.

@ColCampbell- there's not much individual regimental info on Kronoskaf for the Russians, Jim. Richard is very particular about not including that sort of information on the site without backup references, so the Russian entries tend to be generic because we didn't have a Russian member and were relying on tertiary sources, such as Knötel. Now we have a Russian in the group we're starting to get more detailed information on the Russian army, and there could be some updates coming through. Arthur's already assisted with a lot of photos of the captured flags stored in the museums in St Petersburg, which will be used to update the Prussian Kürassiere regiments' flags.

Thank you all for your inputs, especially the pictures.
Taking light yellowish brown won't be entirely wrong, then.

PS: After postinng I found
TMP link