Overall: 15cm (5.5in) x 12cm (4.25in)
Watercolour and ink on paper. A half-length silhouette of a Scottish infantry officer possibly of the 92nd Gordon Highlanders profile to the right, wearing scarlet with coat yellow facings, gold lace and epaulette decorated with the Thistle, white high collar and black stock, bicorne with green plume.
The present profile belongs to the distinctive group of silhouettes produced between 1795 and 1830 by or attributed Charles Buncombe and his son John Buncombe of Newport on the Isle of Wight. Of the two, Charles was the most distinguished painter of silhouettes of military subjects, and it was by his hand that the present silhouette, or ‘shade’, was made. Charles Buncombe was a poor schoolmaster who lodged with his large family at the house of Mrs. Salter at 114 High Street, Newport. Despite his talent, he made little extra money, as the Corporation Minutes, with regard to a local charity, on 27 April 1830, explained: 'Also that John Buncombe, son of Charles Buncombe, late of this Borough, Schoolmaster, a poor orphan, be apprenticed to George Mansfield, of 118, Jermyn Street, St. James's, London, until the age of 21 years and that a life premium of £13. 13. 0. be paid with such apprentice.’
The 92nd Highlanders were famously raised by was raised at Brae Lochaber, Invernessshire by Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon. It was embodied at Aberdeen soon afterwards. Gordon's wife, Jane, accompanied him on his recruiting tours dressed in military uniform. Regimental legend states that she offered a kiss to every new recruit. After garrison postings to Gibraltar and Corsica in 1794-96. It returned home in 1798, moving to Ireland in May to help suppress the Irish Revolt. It briefly saw action in the Low Countries, before returning home and mustering in Buncombe’s home town of Newport, Isle of Wight in early 1800 prior to embarkation at Cowes, to support the attempted French Royalist landing at Quiberon Bay on the north west coast of France.