76th Regiment of Foot, officer’s 20mm gilt coatee button, pre 1855.

The fine officer’s 20mm gilt button of the 76th Regiment of Foot is a particularly attractive example of  the pattern worn on the coatee before 1855 The backmark is JENNENS & Co. LONDON and the button is similar in design to later buttons used by the regiment on buttons but differs in having the regimental number in Roman numerals as LXVII. The elephant’s howdah that appears on later buttons is here replaced by a heavy looking crown and the space at the between the battle honours is filled by a partial wwreath. The regiment was raised by the East India Company and, like several other regiments which first saw service in India, is commemorated by the elephant as well as the battle honours HINDOSTAN & PENINSULA . The regiment became the 2nd Bn. The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment followng the 1881 reforms. jul18/2

Provenance: This was button was in my private Yorkshire collection which I put together in the 1970s and am now breaking up.It is interesting that buttons of this regiment, both earlier and later, show several different treatments of the howdah on the elephant’s back.