AN OFFICER'S 'TARLETON' HELMET, PERTHSHIRE YEOMANRY CAVALRY, CIRCA 1798-1804 the skull and peak of black leather, the peak edged with silver-plated copper; with a silver-plated copper band impressed with the title PERTHSHIRE YEOMY CAVALRY and a pleated silk turban fastened with silver-plated chains; attached to the right skull, a silver-plated die-struck badge of a thistle flower above a scroll bearing the motto PRO ARIS ET FOCIS; a scarlet silk cushion at the rear, from which is pendant a silver-wire tassel; with replacement bearskin crest and contemporary upright white feather plume; the lining worn. The Perthshire Yeomanry Cavalry was raised in 1798 in three troops, in the Carse of Gowrie and in Strathearn, and augmented in 1803 to four troops. Leather helmets are said to have been worn 1798-1804 and the regiment was reduced in 1809. See The Marchioness of Tullibardine 1908, pp. 195-231 and A.V.B. Norman 1963, pp. 133-134. Provenance Fingask Castle, Perthshire, sold Christie's, 26th-28th April 1993