A Pause on the Way to Dinner
Uniforms by appointment to the
Royal Court of Württemberg
This elegant couple is strolling to dinner at a restaurant in Stuttgart. Their reservation is for 7:00, and so they’re wandering to kill time. Their attention has been seized by the display in the window of this tailor’s shop: uniforms for officers of the German army, superbly made by the court tailor appointed to the Kings of Württemberg.
The workmanship of the fit and embroidery is unsurpassed among the tailors in all of the German Empire. Herr Hermann Schönfeld inherited the business from his highly accomplished father, Ludwig. The firm has made uniforms for members of the Württemberg royal family since the war with Austria in 1866. Schönfeld uniforms were worn in London at the funeral of Queen Victoria in 1901, and that of her son, Edward VII, in 1910.
The full-dress – parade – uniforms in the window will be superseded in thirty-three days by the drab “field-grey” the army will wear to war. The couple in the photograph has yet to discover the field-grey uniform in the window round the corner. Nor would they be able to imagine how few of the men who march away in field-grey in August will return.
