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Danish-Norwegian Artillery Uniforms 1684-1730
The artillery branch of
Denmark-Norway's armed forces got its first permanent organisation in 1684 and
was then divided into three corps (Denmark, Holstein and
Norway) which until 1709 had separate uniforms. But even after that year the
uniforms could still be separate in minor details, in some degree dependant
on the availability of cloth. An interesting difference, although only found
in a series of colour plates by Zimmer from 1730, is the number of buttons
on the double-breasted coat: the Danish corps had 2x10 buttons, the Holstein
corps had 2x11 and
the Norwegian corps had 2x9 buttons (all corps have however on my images
below 2x10 buttons).
The
artillery uniforms had the same pattern as the infantry and for general
information on their appearance, as well as the sources I have used, please
read the page about the Danish
infantry. For this page I have however also used Karsten Skjold Petersen's article "Artilleriets uniformer indtil 1815".
The colour on the gun carriages was at least in Norway red with the metal
painted yellow.
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   Danish
Corps
Karsten Skjold Petersen has the following information:
1684 Violet coats with green lining, facings, breeches and stockings
1700-1709 Unknown uniform
1709-1711 Blue coat with red facings and lining or red surtout
with blue facings and lining.
1711-1716 Red coat with violet facings and yellow buttons as well
as
dark blue leg clothing.
1716-1742 Red coat with dark blue facings and lining as well as yellow
buttons, dark blue vest and red leg clothing. The buttonholes were at
least from 1728 dark blue.
According to Lars-Eric Höglund the Danish artillery had in 1683 violet coats with facings and lining in red.
In 1700 they had blue coats with
red. Torstein Snorrason mentions that the regulation from 1691
prescribed
violet coats with green lining.
It was decided
1709 that all artillery corps were to have the same uniform.
Because the Norwegian artillery had yellow lace on their hats in 1720
the Danish artillery most likely had yellow lace as well at that time.
It is also probable that they had this already in 1711 since it was very
common to match the colour on the hat lace with the button colour.
I have however chosen to illustrate all hats with white lace when there
is no concrete evidence of which colour they had.
In
1711 the leg clothing was supposed to be violet as well,
but it became blue because there were large quantities of blue cloth
available. |
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  Holstein
Corps
Karsten Skjold Petersen has the following information:
1684 Red coats with green facings, lining, breeches and stockings.
1701 Blue coat with red facings and stockings as well as
a red raincoat with blue facings.
1709 Decision was made to have the same as the Danish artillery
corps.
Höglund wrote that the Holstein corps had red coats with
green facings and lining. This corresponds with
the uniform regulation from 1691 which Snorrason described.
The drawing to the right was made by Worgewitz in 1728 and depicts a Danish artillery
man. Note that the hat had yellow lace.
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 Norwegian
Corps
Daniel Schorr has the following information:
1697 Steel grey coat with red lining and facings as well as a cassock with
the same colours. Black hat and white neckcloth
1710 Steel grey coat with blue lining and vest. Leather breaches and
karpus.
1711 Red coat with violet lining and violet breeches.
1718 Trondheim's artillery company
had blue coats with red facings.
1720 Red coat with blue facings and lining as well as red stockings.
Höglund complements the information for 1720 by specifying that thee blue
colour was dark blue and that the vest and breeches had the same colour.
The hat had yellow lace and coat had brass buttons. Worgewitz however
depicted the
Norwegian corps in 1728 with white buttons.
Furthermore
Höglund mention that the uniforms were 1685 violet with green
facings.
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Read also about the Norwegian army's uniforms. |
