Headwear: muffin cap worn by Russian soldiers in the Crimea

[Rob1209]

Hello, I'm a new member and my name is Rob.

I'm currently making figures from the Crimean War and trying to find a photo/ picture/ drawing of a muffin cap as worn by Russian soldiers. Would anybody be able to help me with a sketch or picture? I'd be very grateful.

[Mark]

Welcome to the forum, Rob!

Mark

[FROGSMILE]

Hello, I'm a new member and my name is Rob.

I'm currently making figures from the Crimean War and trying to find a photo/ picture/ drawing of a muffin cap as worn by Russian soldiers. Would anybody be able to help me with a sketch or picture? I'd be very grateful.

Hello Rob,

I hope that these images are useful.

[jf42]

Rob, for completeness' sake you may be interested to know that the Russians called this style of undress bonnet furashka or furazhka. That is, 'forage cap', which may indicate from which country they adopted it back in 1811.

The adoption of an English term is curious because a similar bonnet, the feldmutze, had been adopted by the Prussians in 1808 and Germany had been a major cultural influence at the Russian court. However, Prussia's stock may have fallen drastically after Napoleon's victory at Jena.

Until 1812, the British wore undress caps in a variety of styles: fore-and-aft 'carpenters' caps', long-tailed French-style 'night caps', as well as a round 'Scotch' bonnet similar to the feldmutze or furashka. That style appears to have been favoured by mounted troops initially until 1812 when it became the model for the first authorised undress bonnet for infantry.

The furashka was worn by the Imperial Russian Army in one form or another till the First World War. Until the late C19th only officers wore theirs with a leather peak. From c.1900 all ranks began to wear peaked furashka .

[Rob1209]

Rob, for completeness' sake you may be interested to know that the Russians called this style of undress bonnet furashka or furazhka. That is, 'forage cap', which may indicate from which country they adopted it back in 1811.

The adoption of an English term is curious because a similar bonnet, the feldmutze, had been adopted by the Prussians in 1808 and Germany had been a major cultural influence at the Russian court. However, Prussia's stock may have fallen drastically after Napoleon's victory at Jena.

Until 1812, the British wore undress caps in a variety of styles: fore-and-aft 'carpenters' caps', long-tailed French-style 'night caps', as well as a round 'Scotch' bonnet similar to the feldmutze or furashka. That style appears to have been favoured by mounted troops initially until 1812 when it became the model for the first authorised undress bonnet for infantry.

The furashka was worn by the Imperial Russian Army in one form or another till the First World War. Until the late C19th only officers wore theirs with a leather peak. From c.1900 all ranks began to wear peaked furashka .

The information you supplied is going to be of great help, I'll start researching this type of name, and maybe find some images of a white muffin cap.

Thanks, Rob.

[jf42]

Or even a white furashka!

[FROGSMILE]

Rob, for completeness' sake you may be interested to know that the Russians called this style of undress bonnet furashka or furazhka. That is, 'forage cap', which may indicate from which country they adopted it back in 1811.

The adoption of an English term is curious because a similar bonnet, the feldmutze, had been adopted by the Prussians in 1808 and Germany had been a major cultural influence at the Russian court. However, Prussia's stock may have fallen drastically after Napoleon's victory at Jena.

Until 1812, the British wore undress caps in a variety of styles: fore-and-aft 'carpenters' caps', long-tailed French-style 'night caps', as well as a round 'Scotch' bonnet similar to the feldmutze or furashka. That style appears to have been favoured by mounted troops initially until 1812 when it became the model for the first authorised undress bonnet for infantry.

The furashka was worn by the Imperial Russian Army in one form or another till the First World War. Until the late C19th only officers wore theirs with a leather peak. From c.1900 all ranks began to wear peaked furashka .

I meant to say that I found your explanation of this cap fascinating and it did make me reflect that the old maxim "what goes around comes around" is a great truism. How ironic that we later adopted the similarly shaped peak less 'Brodrick' cap, subsequently added a peak and then, even though by a different route, ended up with a peaked forage cap not that different to the ones used by the Russians.

[jf42]

Indeed! I don't know whether the Brodrick cap was a conscious archaism or a momentary lapse, redressed when somebody realised the unfortunate similarity with the feldmutze that our Teutonic cousins had been sporting for a hundred years- not to mention the furashka of the Russians with whom we had a prickly relationship of much longer standing. It is often said the Brodrick cap was ‘unpopular’ but perhaps it was decided there was something that had become not-quite-British about the old "Scotch" bonnet (Unlike the "Austrian" model caps that preceded the Brodrick...). It remained good enough for our jolly Jack Tars, though, and the Royal Marines, too, for a little while longer (And of course, the Balmoral and 'Bonnet, Tam o' Shanter', were introduced to replace the Glengarry for Scottish troops in 1915).

Not that the powers-that-be at Horse Guards were deterred by such considerations when they chose the blue cloth helmet to replace the shako in 1878- although I am not convinced by the traditional association of that choice with the victory of the Prussians over the French in 1871. The associations, in terms of shape, with the Foreign Service helmet and indeed the British heavy cavalry helmet of the 1840s, are as valid as those with the Prussian pickelhaube. Other than the spiked finial, which was much less obtrusive, the similarities seem to be superficial.

As you may know, the story goes that when the Russians were in the process of adopting their twin-peaked, leather helmet for the infantry in the early 1840s (based on the Austrian-inspired heavy cavalry helmet introduced in Napoleonic times), the Prussian ambassador is supposed to have seen a prototype on the Czar's desk and reported back to Berlin where extensive reform of army uniforms were being considered. Certainly, it is fact that Prussia adopted their first tall 'pickelhaube' with a spiked finial in 1843, a year before the Russian helmet with the flaming grenade finial appeared. Hence the identification of the twin-peaked leather helmet with Prussia, which was firmly established by the German Empire retaining the pickelhaube in its various forms until 1918 while Russia, like many countries including Britain, adopted the low French-style shako in the 1860s. That item, although associated with the French, in fact originated as undress headgear in the Austrian army. So it goes.

Nothing is as it seems. Consider HM Foot Guards. The world-famous bearskin cap, was adopted as a trophy of victory over the French at Waterloo in 1815 (- said to be Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard but actually Chasseurs who also wore tall fur caps) but in its original form the fur cap was first worn as a uniform item by Austrian troops in the late C17th and originated in the eastern borderlands as the folk costume of Poles, Hungarians, Croats and Serbs- etc.

A Hungarian-style fur cap had in fact been worn by some British grenadier companies briefly in the 17th century. It was hardly an exclusive honour when awarded in 1815. Tall, 'Austrian' fur caps had been worn by Black Watch grenadiers since the 1750s and by all British grenadier companies (in full dress) since 1768, when the three Fusilier regiments also adopted fur caps. Fur caps are also worn today by the Danish Royal Guards, along with red tunics, but Copenhagen is not such a popular tourist destination.

The tunic worn by the Foot Guards today was a Prussian innovation. The thigh length litewka was introduced for their landwehr militia c.1813 and universally replaced the skimpy coatee as part of the clothing reforms of the 1840s. France also introduced a tunic in the 1840s and Austria soon followed suit, as did Britain a little later but, unfortunately, the new double-breasted red tunic was not issued in time for the Crimean war.

Historically of course, red, or scarlet, is the colour most associated with the British army but khaki is sometimes said to be the quintessential British contribution to military fashion, adopted as a result of Imperial campaigns in dusty places against hill men with long rifles. Hence the retention of khaki Number 2 'Service Dress' for formal parade wear .

Perhaps the military adaption of Highland dress, evolved into a fantastic and impractical confection, is the most truly British item of uniform we have given to the world- although adopted by few! I can only think of the pipe bands in some Arab and Indian army regiments, including the Ghurkas and also, for some reason that eludes me, police and fire service pipe bands in the U.S. despite their appearing to be overwhelmingly Irish by association. So it goes.

Today, the Royal Navy and the Royal Regiment of Scotland still wear their Brodrick-style caps and 'bonnets, ToS', while the peakless feldmutze and furashka are long gone (though, of course, the peaked round cap is still with us in every shape under the sun). One could argue that their place has been taken by the universally-worn beret (Originally Basque, I believe. Borrowed from French Chasseurs Alpins and popularised by the British in WW2). While the French Navy, of course, still wear Scotch bonnets.

So it goes.

[tabony]

It doesn't matter who had it first, the British army always makes it look better!

Martin

[jf42]

Which do you think was our greatest sartorial coup- "we British," I mean.

[GrantRCanada]

Which do you think was our greatest sartorial coup- "we British," I mean.

Although perhaps a tad prejudiced, I am rather partial to the feather bonnet in conjunction with full highland regalia ..... even if not a particularly practical attire, it is most decidedly "British"!

[jf42]

Unmistakably and indubitably, sir.