HUNTING JACKET

Fire engine red jacket with long skirts and cut-away front. The skirts are open to the waist at the back with a wide pleat on either side. At the top of each pleat is a 6th Dragoon Guards button. The waist may be slightly dropped and has a wide pocket flap covering a large pocket at each side. The pockets are not visible from the outside and are covered on the inside by a lining of the same red wool/cotton fabric the rest of the jacket is made from. The right hand pocket is red cotton at the top and a light brown oiled cotton? at the bottom. The left hand pocket is all red cotton. There are five large brass buttons down the front, approximately hemi-spherical in shape. They have a raised pattern of a king's crown at the top of a belt in a circle shape. The belt has the word "CARABINEERS" on it. Inside the circle of the belt is "VI / DG" which stands for Sixth Dragoon Guards. On the back of the buttons is "JENNENS & CO / LONDON". According to Parkyn in (MILITARY) SHOULDER-BELT PLATES AND BUTTONS, this design was used between 1881 and 1920, but this way of writing the manufacturer's name was used from 1912 to 1924, so it appears that the buttons were made between 1912 and 1920. The jacket is definitely older than this, and Fawcett himself died in 1898 so the buttons must have been added by a descendant. The riding breeches of cotton (H90.0004) have been dated to around 1900, so the whole outfit may have been worn after his death, perhaps by one of his sons. The top four buttons are on a shank and have already been sewn to a piece of the same fabric, which has been cut away around the shank. The other buttons do not appear to have a shank. Small four-holed brass? buttons on the collar and inside the pockets. Those inside the pockets are sewn to the lower edge of the pocket and attach to small flap underneath the large pocket flap. There is one button on the left side of the collar. The two on the right side of the collar have a crescent shaped piece of material buttoned to them. In cold weather this can be buttoned between one button on each collar to keep it closed. The collar is a stand-up collar, lower at the front than at the sides and back. The outside of the collar is covered in many lines of fine stitching to strengthen it and make it stand up. Sleeves Slightly gathered where they stitch to the shoulder. They are lined with white twill? cotton and have a fine white cotton inner cuff which was held into the wrist with what appears to have been elastic. It is not in one piece but if it is cord there is no opening in the cuff to enable it to be tightened or loosened. There is a long cuff sewn down at the end of the sleeves. Inside the collar is a piece of pink tape which would have been used to hang the jacket, and just below it is a brass ring attached to another piece of tape sewn into the collar/back seam. The top of the jacket is cut into one piece at the front and four shaped pieces at the back. Below the waist it is cut into two pieces, one on each side of the slit at the back. The coat is entirely hand stitched. It is part of a set of hunting pinks passed from the National Trust without any information. The remainder of the set comprises one red waistcoat (H90.0007), and two pairs of riding breeches (H90/0004, H90.0005). A label on the waistcoat indicated that the set belonged to Theodore Fawcett, ex 6th Dragoon Guards, later Captain of the Pinjarrah Mounted Volunteers. He was Captain of the 6th Dragoon Guards in 1851 and retired in 1858 and came to Western Australia. A small printed piece of paper found in a pocket of the waistcoat is dated January 29, 1861 in black ink. (Now in the subfile of H90.0007.)

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