One of the most amazing things is that this miniature has a
Carl Reid signature deep inside it - it's amazing - we can instantly plug the sculptor name with the piece. With this, I intent to mean that it is one of those figures that is not anonymously created: In many cases you see a figure and you can't plug it with the creator. Carl Reid is one of the very few, but really one of the very few that has an heritage on each piece he makes.
Regarding the jacket, in the original illustration, it may not be French, it may not be British, but it can also be a fantasy blue jacket!
Abbreviating, it's like this: Indians appreciated blue jackets. Colonials realized this - therefore, just like merchants going to a fair with novelties from far away lands, they carried blue jackets with gold embroidering just with the purpose of giving them away and trade for peace, land and to conquer the indians trust as allies. As you know - some indians fought for the French, some Indians fought for the English, some Indians fought against themselves while others fought both against the French and the British: In this confusion, diplomacy was also a must - had Hitler used the same tactic in the Ukraine in 1941 and most probably history would be different.
Stories such as this abound: What is absolutely ordinary to some groups is highly desired for other groups. For example the Portuguese almost simultaneously discovered Brasil and the Maritime path to India, and shortly begun commerce with Japan. In Japan the name for this episode is "Nanban Commerce", or "
Commerce with the barbarians from the South". What the Portuguese merchants realized was that no matter they met European, Indian or Japanese people: All these traders, Sultans, Lords and Kings wanted to have a Brazilian Parrot - the amazing animal that spoke!
They were willing to carry spices and powder to Europe and the ones so far away had Parrots on the top of their wish list.
An episode of these times: still today if you go to Cape Green and ask for a beer, they give you a plate with shrimps for free and at restaurants you can almost only find lobster at the cost of a dine - in so many countries shrimps and lobsters are rare and expensive and in this lovely archipelago it's the most ordinary meal in the world: They would easily trade lobster for beef!
Going back to the indians again, if you have the chance of picking this book:
Plate C3 shows exactly an indian wearing a fantasy blue jacket - and the supporting text mentions exactly that: Not a captured piece, but something designed with the purpose of an offer.
Jackets apart, this bust just flew to the top of my most wanted! It's just so outstanding!