Late Victorian Forage cap

[GriffMJ]

Hi All

Are there any uniform boffs out there that can shed some light on this Forage cap? This would be an "undress" item by the looks of it...... note that there appears to have been a band on this cap that is no longer there as the lower half of the cap appears to have been protected from sunlight by its darker shade (just a thought).

* That motto has a lived with that cap..... as you can see the top bone ends have dug into the cloth. The loops are specifically off the center line..... so its not an addition. It also gives a bit more credence to the missing band theory ..... that would push the upper half the motto up ....to dig into the melton cloth causing the wear?

** I have also attached undress for c1830 (Officer) and c1844 (Trooper).

Description
This is a late Victorian era 17th Lancers forage cap. The body is composed of blue melton cloth. The peak is black patent leather with a green skived leather lining. On the front is a silver (S.SIL) 17th Lancers motto. The sweat band is black leather with "J. Compton Sons & Webb" embossed on the left side. The black patent leather chin strap is suspended on two tarnished silver plate 1/2 ball buttons. There is a foul weather cover composed of black oil skin with two silver plate (very tarnished) buttons.