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Good Morning Chaps,

I just wanted to share some photos with you of a Scots Guards Officers Tunic that is being bought to me tomorrow for a sympathetic restoration. I run a specialist dry cleaning company (founded in 1912) and we get all manner of vintage textiles and garments to restore (even a Crimean War hammock)

This tunic which I have not yet seen in the flesh was in a fire ravaged house and is in distress. I would very much value your thoughts on it please because although I have a degree of experitse in the restoration of the fabric and textile areas, my knowledge is slightly less when it comes to the minutiae etc, including exact dating and if I might even be able to find out to whom it was issued. Comments please?









P.s if you want to Google Bradleys Quality Cleaning you will see our website with some of the stuff that we have done.

Hopward,

Welcome to the forum!

From the pictures (which I have inserted into the text), the tunic looks to be in quite good condition for its ago.

It appears there are a couple of loopholes for a medal bar above the left breast?

It will be interesting to see if there are any identification marks on the tunic when it arrives.

Best wishes
David

Hi David,

Well we are at the beginning of a sympathetic renovation of the Scots Guards tunic, but I am very aware of not wiping out its history. I'm thought that this might be of some interest for members to read about how we go about it.

The Scots Guards jacket that we are working on was in a building that caught fire and subsequently apart from blackening of the badges, but you etc, the fabric absorbed a lot of fire smell. not nice and very pungent.

We are able to remove all traces of the smoke smell by placing the tunic in an Ozone chamber for a couple of days. What might be of interest is that the musty / sometimes mothball type smell that is associated with old textiles (a smell that I have never liked) can also be permanently removed by the same treatment.

For your interedt, I am also attaching a photo of my working on cleaning up the blackened insignia. We have very precise water atomisation air guns at work that with the trigger action can fire pinpoint fine jets of water with air so that in effect you are drying the site milliseconds after wetting it.

I love these guns for their accuracy and the ability to be used where items are too fragile for normal handling but the mechanical action of the water jet can be so adjusted that it just lightly bounces off the surface.

That's a fascinating insight into your work. I enjoyed seeing how this work is done.

Good luck with the remaining endeavour.

Hopward

Fascinating indeed. I've owned a couple of Victorian tunics in the past and decided not try cleaning insignia/ bullion etc as I felt I was much more likely to do something harmful rather than beneficial.

However , The 1900 Dress Regulations say that ' Gold trimmings and gold lace that have become slightly tarnished can be cleaned with a mixture of cream of tartar and dry bread rubbed up very fine, applied in a dry state, and brushed lightly a clean soft brush.' For removing stains from scarlet tunics it recommends rubbing with dry pipeclay and then brushing well. If that fails it recommends that salts of sorrel mixed in boiling water should be applied with a hard brush, followed by cream of tartar mixed in cold water, to be applied the same way. This process to be repeated until clean.

Perhaps somebody with a tunic they're not too bothered about, and access to the appropriate substances might care to test these recommendations!

Patrick

Hopward,

Sorry, forgot to address your initial questions.

I am no expert, but there are three 'pips' on the shoulder, which I believes makes it a post-1902 Captain's tunic . There should also be two rings of worsted braid around the cuff.

I am happy to be corrected by those who know about these things!

Patrick