This 4 inch trumpet playing Soldier Bear is dressed in a red coat, green pants, and gold trimmed band uniform. The Soldier Bear is ready for a parade with his black polished boots and belt buckle. There is a blue and gold banner hanging from a gold hoop on the little bears trumpet. This Christmas Ornament is made of durable resin. This Soldier Bear ornament will hang by a gold cord or stand alone on your fireplace mantle or a shelf. Select this link to view our Wooden Nutcracker Ornaments.
The End of Bright Colours
Until 1914 the majority of armies still provided colourful dress uniforms for all ranks, at least for parade and off duty wear. These often retained distinctive features from the past. Most Russian troops for example wore the very dark green introduced by Peter the Great in 1700. German infantry generally wore the dark Prussian blue of the previous two centuries. Bavarians wore light blue while two regiments of the Prussian Guard were still issued with the brass mitre caps of the eighteenth century grenadier. The British retained their scarlet tunics for parade and "walking out" wear while the bulk of French regiments wore red trousers with dark or light blue tunics. The infantry of the Austro-Hungarian Empire discarded their historic white tunics in 1868 in favour of dark blue. Retained, however, were the extremely large number, of colours appearing on collars, cuffs and shoulder straps to distinguish the various regiments. There were for example ten shades of red, ranging from cherry red to pink. The Swedish Army had favoured dark blue with yellow facings since the beginning of the eighteenth century. There was infinite variety, even within smaller armies, between regiments, branches or ranks and the subject is a very complex one. However by 1914 drab colours were increasingly being adopted for active service and ordinary duty wear. The British had worn khaki drill in India and Africa since the Indian Mutiny of1857. A darker version was adopted for home service field wear in 1902, the same year that the US Army also adopted khaki for non-dress occasions. The Italians introduced gray-green in 1909, followed by the German and Austrian armies who adopted different shades of gray. The Russians had changed to a gray shade of khaki in 1908, following their experience in the Russo Japanese War of 1905. There was however strong attachment to the colourful uniforms as previously worn on all occasions and the process was not an inexorable one. The Danish Army adopted gray green uniforms for all occasions in 1903, reverted to a combination of dark and light blue in 1910, took up light gray in 1915 and finally settled for khaki in 1923. The Imperial Russian armies following their adoption of khaki-gray field uniforms in 1908, took the opportunity to upgrade their parade uniforms to much more elaborate and colourful styles, and were experimenting with a mix of khaki and bright colours when war broke out in 1914. The Japanese Army probably went further than most in adopting khaki for all occasions after 1905, although even here officers and the Cavalry of the Imperial Guard retained traditional coloured uniforms for formal and ceremonial occasions. Select this link to view our Large Nutcrackers.
Distinctive Clothing
One purpose of military uniforms is to clearly distinguish combatants who are protected by the laws of war from other persons carrying weapons, who enjoy no such protection. Another purpose in historical times was to make it difficult for deserters to avoid detection; military uniforms were so distinctive with many metal buttons and unique colors that they could not be modified into unrecognizable clothing. In societies where the military was important, the soldiers were dressed to impress the population and themselves. If the commander raised and equipped the troops out of his own pocket, the appearance of the soldiers was also designed to impress his superiors. Attractive or distinctive uniforms could make a military career desirable to young men (the "peacock" factor). As late as 1914 the British Army found that regiments with particularly striking off duty or parade uniforms found it easier to attract recruits. Select this link to view our Unique Christmas Ornaments.
