Cavalry standard of the 4th, 8th, 10th or 20th Dragoon Regiments of the RIA sample of 1894 (reverse side)

The rarest find of our store is the original back side of the dragoon standard of the Russian army, which until recently was part of the main exposition of the Tsarskoye Selo Museum–Reserve (on temporary lease). Cavalry standards are much rarer than full-size banners, there have been no sales on the antique market in the last few years. 

In 1883, the Russian army undertook a large-scale reform of replacements and standards, completely changing both their appearance and the order of use. Until that time, every battalion (in infantry) had banners or a division (in cavalry). In 1883, each regiment, infantry or cavalry, was supposed to have only one banner – the others had to be kept in the regiment (usually in the regimental church) as symbols of military valor. All individual units of the banner were ordered to issue directly at their formation (previously there was a practice of awarding banners as distinctions for military exploits). In addition, during the reform of 1883, the banners of the Prussian type, which originated in the XVIII century, were completely abandoned, the panels of which were divided into a cross with a coat of arms in the center and corners with imperial monograms.

The new banners of the 1883 model had nothing in common with the previous ones. Technically, they consisted of two silk panels sewn together – the front and the back. For the standards, the dimensions of the panels in the decoration were set to 13 x 15 vershkov (58 x 67 cm). Almost the entire area of the front side was occupied by an icon of a saint or a church holiday, revered in the regiment, made in the technique of painting with paints on fabric. The reverse side was a cloth with a border, in the center of which the imperial monogram was embroidered. The color of the banner in the Guards cavalry corresponded to the applied color of the regiment, in the army cavalry, the banners of all the standards were white. In the corners of the cloth, images of the Small State Emblem of the Russian Empire were embroidered with colored silk with a metal thread. The gaps between the corners were compositionally filled with wide stripes with a special pattern embroidered on them. Both sides of the panel were framed with a border, colored or white. Eight-pointed stars were embroidered on the border, and on both sides it was edged with colored stripes embroidered with a border. The color of the border corresponded to the color of the applied cloth, the color of the stars and stripes corresponded to the color of the instrument metal set for this shelf.

After the accession to the throne of Emperor Nicholas II, the troops still received banners and standards of the 1883 model, but instead of the monogram "AIII", the monogram "NIII" was embroidered on the reverse side of the banner.

Banners and standards of the 1883 model were characterized by a high level of execution and expensive materials (silk, gold or silver thread). Their main drawback was the fragility of the painted icon on the front side. In 1900, new samples of the banner and standard were adopted, on the front side of which was placed a silk one-piece image of the face of the Savior Not Made with Hands. Otherwise, the new samples differed from the previous ones only in small details. The banners and standards of the 1900 model existed until February 1917. They were manufactured by the factory of military accessories of S.S. Shchetinin in Moscow.

It must be remembered that when the colors of uniforms were changed during the cavalry reform of 1907-1908, when the historical uniforms were returned to all regular cavalry, the colors of the banners and standards granted by that time remained unchanged.

By 1914, the standards with the reverse side of this color (white field, scarlet border, silver embroidery) had the following cavalry regiments (the date of award is indicated in parentheses):

— 4th Dragoon Novotroitsko-Yekaterinoslavsky (1.06.1906);

— 8th Astrakhan Dragoon (08/20/1898);

— 10th Dragoon Novgorod (10.05.1901);

— 20th Finnish Dragoon (12.12.1901).

Unfortunately, it is not possible to establish the affiliation of the standard to a particular regiment without a banner bracket and a jubilee ribbon. The standard is decorated in a modern frame, made especially for it. Guarantee of authenticity. A museum-level rarity.