Coatee
Coatee, a military tailcoat with long tails, standing collar, false turnbacks and pockets, single- or double-breasted, worn with epaulettes or shoulder straps. In some armies, collar, cuffs, and lapels were in regimental facing colours, while others introduced stamped buttons and/or embroidered shoulder boards with the regimental number, initial or heraldic device. The fashionable cut of the coatee originated with the Polish kurtka, which also influenced the French habit-veste, German Leibrock, Westenrock, Kurtka, and Kollett. In 1812, the British army introduced a short-tailed coatee (jacket) for officers and men, although officers continued to wear the long-tailed coatee in the field. The picture above shows a British officer of the Royal Engineers 1813, wearing a coatee. This pre-painted 1:30 scale miniature is part of the del Prado collection Infantry of the Napoleonic Wars.
Bibliography
- Haythornthwaite, Philip: Uniforms of the Napoleonic Wars, 1796–1814
- Haythornthwaite, Philip: Uniforms of Waterloo