Le Justaucorps
(The Uniform Coat)
Uniformes les Compagnies franches de la
Marine
Compagnies franches de la Marine de
Contrecoeur
(Above: A watercolour of the French Marine
from the Port of Rochefort. |
Le Justaucorps
(The Uniform Coat) "Le Justaucorps": In 1688, the uniform coats of the French Marines sent to Canada were grey-white wool cloth lined with blue. According to the Ordonnance of 1686, buttons were pewter. Sergeants' coats had red lineing. A watercolour painting from about 1700 shaows a Marine in a grey-white coat with no collar and blue cuffs. The coat reaches to just above the knees and has buttons all the way down the front, grouped in threes. Pockets flaps are very low, horizontal, and have three buttons. The cuffs are very large, and the three buttons on each cuff are very widely spaced. By this time, the buttons had changed to yellow brass. Another watercolour which shows a Marine at the Port of Rochefort in 1718, depicts a similar grey-white coat with large blue cuffs; but the buttons are now evenly spaced down the front. A small standing collar has been added. |
A Painting of Toulon by Joseph Vernet, done between 1750 and 1760, shows a marine of a Sea Service Company at Marseille in a grey-white coat with blue cuff's, a blue falling collar, and blue lining. The skirts are hooked back, showing a "stockless anchor" (an anchor without the cross bar) at the corners of the skirts. This coat apparently had buttons only to the waist.
At right: A Marine private, Compagnies franches de la Marine, 1755. Grey-white coat, blue collar, cuffs, lining, waistcoat and breeches, white anchor on turnbacks, brass buttons, false gold hat lace, grey gaiters Coats for colonial Marine Companies supposely did not have the collars. This type of justaucorps is illustrated below. Drawing be Joe Lee. |
Cuffs remained very large throughout this period. The three buttons could be undone and the cuffs unfolded to cover tha hands in cold weather. The Marine coats all seem to have had the cuff styled "en botte fermée" were both the top and bottom seams of the sleeve were sewn all the way tothe end so that , of the cuff was unfolded, the end of the sleeve would make an unbroken circle. This contrasted with the style "en botte ouverte" where the lower sleeve seam was left open the length of the cuff, producing an appearance much like the modern :French Cuff" on dress shirts. Only regiments with laced coats and cuffs, such as the Grades Francais pictured in the 1755 drill manual, seem to have worn this style. Corporals received the same coat as soldiers but usually had a stripe of yellow worsted wool around the end of the cuff.
Sergeants' coats were of "Fine grey-white wool" and required 2 -1/4 aunes of cloth instead of the common soldiers 2 aunes. To encircle the ends of the cuffs, possibly more than once, 1 1/4 aunes of "fine gold Lyons Braid," 1 pounce wide, was used. Two pockets of strong linen were included, possibly in the pleats, and not under the pocket flaps in front. Soldiers and corporals had no pockets. The "drap gris-blan" or grey-white wool cloth used as the basic coat material was not dyed but was a natrual off-white resulting from cheap processing where the wool was unbleached. It did retain much of its natural lanolin, giving it some ability to repel water. The blue serge was a somewhat lighter weight; and while dye lots varied greatly, it was usually not a dark navy blue, but a lighter royal blue. It often faded badly. A word about style: The skirts or tails of the "justaucorps" were very full, hanging almost straight in front. There were three splits in the tails of the coat, one in the center and other on each side, all running from about the waist level down. The central one always remained open, but the two on the sides were held closed by two or three small buttons. These two side vents used up much of the extra fabric in the coattails in voluminous pleats. While the amount of fabric and the number of pleats decreased over time, these were still very full-skirted coats. At the top of each side vent was a large coat button. These were very firmly sewn through the many layers of fabric at the top of the pleats. They helped support the waistbelt which slid behind them from above. Sleeves were very wide at the beginning of the century; and while they grew lighter through the years, they always remained large enough for the sleeved waistcoat to fit easily. (Text used on this web page was taken from an article "French Marine Uniforms in North America" by Bruce J. Egli, published in F & I War Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1984, The Journal of the 18th Century Society, New Alexandria, PA) |
(Text used on this web page was taken from an article "French Marine Uniforms in North America" by Bruce J. Egli, published in F & I War Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1984, The Journal of the 18th Century Society, New Alexandria, PA)