1690 French grenadiers headgear

[janbruinen]

Belhomme (l'armee francaise en 1690) states that grenadiers of some some french regiments wore a kind of dragoon cap. Colour was a off-white (gris-blanc) sack (same as the coat it seems) and different (facing?) colour turban which sometimes later became leather/bearskin? ( en peau it is called)
I have never seen a picture of these; are there any?

[Arthur]

French grenadiers mostly wore the same hat as the rest of the infantry but in a minority of regiments they apparently adopted the stocking cap you mention, Jan. René Chartrand mentions this in his Osprey MAA on Louis XIV's army but he does not provide any illustrations - nor have I seen any elsewhere.

Since this was not an official item of clothing, it seems likely that the cap was made from surplus coat material (hence the gris blanc colour) lined with the coloured cloth used for facings. 'En peau' almost certainly means fur as I've never seen pictures of stocking caps lined with leather, whereas some dragoon regiments such as La Reine did have fur turnups.

[janbruinen]

thanks,
noticed that Dixon had a French grenadier figure in stocking cap. Does any has a photo of this guy?

[Arthur]

If you are referring to GA 24c, he is not a French grenadier. I seem to recall his stocking cap is actually more something of a very soft cloth cap in the style worn by some English regiments before the bag was stiffened to shape it like a mitre. Don't have any pics, though : sorry.