Hi Nick
Would your
Gardes Françaises plates look something like this ?
Or this, which is a variant of the above ?
The former is taken from Giffart's (also spelled Giffard)
Art Militaire Français published in 1696 and depicting the
Gardes Françaises circa 1690-1695. The guards seem to have adopted the belly cartridge box at the same time as the rest of the army, i.e between 1697 and 1703.
It's not clear when the shoulder ribbons went out of fashion for the infantry, but the change seems to have taken place at the turn of the 18th century : most post 1701 images of French foot soldiers show them without the ribbons, though cavalrymen retained their
aiguillettes for several more decades.
One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never know.