HORSE FURNITURE OF GENERAL JOHN MOSTYN, CIRCA 1760, velvet housing and holster covers lavishly decorated in silver embroidery, lace and fringe conserved and mounted within a glazed frame, the frame: 165 x 139.5 cm Provenance The Hon David McAlpine The set comprises a pair of pistol holster covers and a housing intended to be attached round the edge of the saddle. The appearance of 'golden-khaki' - rather than scarlet or dark blue - as the colour for officers' horse furniture is unexpected, but is attested by portraits of the period. Sir Philip Honywood is shown using it in a naive portrait by 'follower of David Morier' after Bartholomew Dandridge (Christie's British Paintings, 23 February 1989, Lot 128) and a similarly coloured set also appears in the portrait of Colonel, the Marquess of Lothian, 24th Foot, by David Morier (Sotheby's Old Masters and British Paintings, 8 December 2016, Lot 106). General John Mostyn (1709-79) was an eighteenth century soldier whose character was as colourful as the language he habitually employed in correspondence. Brave, robust, ambitious, blunt and amoral: he was everything such a caricature of an eighteenth century soldier should be. John Mostyn was the second son of Sir Roger Mostyn of Mostyn, Flintshire, Bt., M.P. (1673-1739) and his wife Lady Essex Finch, the daughter of the 7th Earl of Winchilsea. In 1732, his military career began as he acquired an ensigncy in Handasyde's (16th) Regiment of Foot. Having been promoted to Captain of the same regiment four years later, in 1742 he undertook the dual role of captain-lieutenant and lieutenant-colonel in the Coldstream Guards. The previous year he had been elected as M.P. for Malton, Yorkshire, a position he would hold until 1768. He saw active service on various occasions, commanding his company at both the battles of Dettingen and Fontenoy, at which time he came to the attention of King George II who appointed him a Groom of The King's Bedchamber in 1746. He left the Coldstream Guards in 1751 to join the 7th Regiment of Foot (the Royal Fusileers), and was thereafter promoted on several occasions, at one time acting as commander of the British forces in Germany. He was ambitious for further advancement, and wrote regularly to close friend, the Duke of Newcastle seeking his help in attaining such appointments. He was appointed as colonel of the 1st Dragoon Guards in May 1763. He vacated his seat in the House of Commons to take up the governorship of Menorca in 1768. He was promoted to general in 1772, seven years before his death in February 1779.