Of red leather covered with red cloth and with three rings at the top to attach to straps for the waistbelt . A border of gold lace of zigzag pattern and in the centre a trophy of arms raised with a crowned eagle grasping a sword and thunderbolts issuing from its talons. The motto PRO GLORIA ET PATRIA above, all below an Imperial Crown .

The Black Eagle is not an emblem widely associated with British regiments and their insignia and equipment. The use of the zigzag motif representing lightning together with the eagle suggests an allusion to Jupiter. Frederick the Great of Prussia employed the decoration for example in the Berlin Arsenal built in the early eighteenth century. The decoration appears from the late eighteenth century on some French Napoleonic items of uniform and also on American uniform, for example shako plates of the period c.1810.

The Prince of Wales acquired numerous items of Prussian, Austrian, Russian and French uniform and equipment, doubtless in part as inspiration for the patterns he developed for British light and heavy cavalry regiments.

Text adapted from Carlton House: The Past Glories of George IV's Palace (1991)