The first decade of the 19th century is the period when the uniform regulations were changed faster than the uniforms could be issued to the regiments. Gustav IV Adolf was very interested in the appearance of his army and frequently made alterations to its uniforms. The changes to his major uniform regulation from 1802 had been limited until 1806, but after that a series of changes took place that led to the very different m/1807 seen above and which was to be worn by the provincial infantry. It was a grey uniform that was identical for all regiments with much less decoration than the previous uniform. However, the road to this uniform was not straight and Gustav IV Adolf's many uniform changes are summarized in the chronology below.

The grey m/1807 uniform was unpopular and was not in force long enough to be issued to all regiments before the 1809 coup d’etat resulted in its abolition. However, this did not mean that the provincial infantry regiments wore uniforms that were in accordance with the m/1802 regulation during the Finnish War of 1808-1809. Some changes decided in 1806 were implemented immediately by re-sewing the old uniforms. By removing the lapels on the jackets and purchasing grey trousers (trousers were replaced more often than jackets), the old m/1802 uniforms were transformed into m/1806 uniforms (i.e. the spring model of m/1806, in the autumn of 1806 the jackets were to be grey).

Chronology

Model 1806 (spring)

7 February 1806: The provincial infantry was to wear grey waistcoats and grey trousers with an inch-wide blue strip along the outer seam, as well as black gaiters that ended below the knee. The exceptions were the Livregementet’s Grenadier Battalion and the Livgrenadjärregementet, which were to wear blue waistcoats and trousers with a red strip. In addition, the lapels are to be removed from the jackets of the provincial infantry, which will still have two rows of buttons.

27 February 1806: Both the Swedish and Finnish infantry and the foot jägers are to have only one row of buttons on the jackets and the blue strip on the trousers is to be removed. The cloaks shall now have sleeves and a collar that covers the shoulders.

Model 1806 (autumn)

30 October 1806: The Swedish provincial infantry, except for the grenadier units, are to have grey jackets and also grey cloaks with a blue collar. The regiments are to be distinguished by different colours on the collar and cuffs of the jacket.

28 November 1806: A detailed uniform regulation states that the Swedish provincial infantry regiments are to have dark grey while the Finnish ones are to have light grey. The shoulder belt and the blue-yellow sash from m/1792 are reintroduced (they had been replaced with a waist belt in connection with m/1802).

Model 1807

26 January 1807: All the infantry, except for the grenadier units, shall have dark grey clothes and dark blue collar, cuffs and turnbacks on the jacket. The only difference between the regiments will be a regimental badge on the hat. All regiments and corps will have brass buttons. The model drawing for this uniform was already approved on January 14. The Jäger corps will have green collar, cuffs and turnbacks on the jacket and a green plume and cordon on the hat. They too will only be distinguished by a regimental badge on the hat.

5 March 1807: The appearance of the regimental badges on the hat is determined.

19 May 1807: The privates (= in the guard regiments and grenadier units) were to wear a round hat with a white feather sultan and black horsehair brim. Non-commissioned officers and drummers were to wear a “tricorne hat” (i.e. "Napoleon hat", not "Charles XII hat") with silver lace for non-commissioned officers. This information comes from Bellander (page 396) and he gives the impression that it applied to the entire army, which cannot reasonably be true.

Model 1807 Abolished

8 June 1809: The white armband worn by officers since 1772 is abolished.

14 June 1809: The grey uniform colour is abolished. Jackets are to be blue again while waistcoats, trousers, cuffs, lapels, collars and linings are to return to the colours they had before the grey uniforms were introduced.

Model 1806 (spring)

The only model drawings for uniforms from 1806 that exist in the Swedish War Archives are three drawings for cavalry regiments, and the cavalry was not affected by Gustav IV Adolf's austerity to the same extent as the provincial infantry.

Livregementet's Cuirassier Corps Decreed 22 March 1806 [SE/KrA/0429/008/15]

Skånska Dragoon Regiment Decreed 17 February 1806 [SE/KrA/0429/008/16]

Västgöta Dragoon Regiment [SE/KrA/0429/008/45]

Skånska Dragoon Regiment was called the Norra Skånska Cavalry Regiment until 1801 and was converted into the Skånska Hussar Regiment in 1807. Västgöta was also a former cavalry regiment and was converted into an infantry regiment in 1811.

Model 1806 (autumn)

Johan August von Borck (1787-1845) made 32 coloured drawings of uniforms (24 officer uniforms and 8 civilians) on his own initiative. The uniform images correspond to the regulations that applied to the provincial infantry from 30 October 1806 until 26 January 1807. The fact that enlisted regiments are also depicted in grey coats is, however, surprising and may perhaps be due to some misunderstanding.

16 of these images have been published in an article by Gun Adler in Meddelanden från Armémuseum 11. Unfortunately, as black and white photos, but with text descriptions of the colours on all images, and it is from that article that the information below comes from. However, Adler wrote in her article that the colours were faded and some may therefore be uncertain

Konungens eget värvade regemente	Drottningens livregemente	Engelbrecht's Regiment	Värmland Jäger Battalion
Grey coat with red collar, red lapels and yellow turnbacks. Gold epaulettes and grey trousers.	Grey coat with collar, cuffs, lapels, and turnbacks in yellow. White epaulettes, waistcoat and trousers.	Grey coat with collar, cuffs, and lapels in red and gold epaulettes. White waistcoat and white trousers.	Grey coat with collar, cuffs, and lapels in green and silver epaulettes. Grey trousers.
Livgrenadjärregementet	Kalmar	Livdrabant Corps	Hussar
Blue coat and blue trousers. The drawing is unfinished, so other details have not been filled in.	Grey coat with red collar, red cuffs, white turnbacks and golden epaulettes. Grey trousers.	Grey coat with grey collar and yellow turnbacks. Gold epaulettes and grey trousers.	According to Adler's article, a hussar had a black fur coat and yellow trousers. However, Borck depicted two hussars and perhaps the text describes the second hussar.
Göta Artillery Regiment	Pomeranian Horse Artillery	Adjutant General of the Wing	Nobility Uniform
Grey coat with yellow collar and gold epaulettes. Grey trousers.	Grey coat with white collar and gold epaulettes. Grey trousers with yellow embroidery.	Grey coat with gold lace on collar and cuffs. Gray trousers.	Grey coat with gold epaulettes.
Admiralty	Adjutant General of the Squadron	Fleet Construction Corps	Army Fleet
Grey coat with blue collar and cuffs and gold epaulettes. Grey trousers.	Grey coat with gold lace on collar and cuffs. Grey trousers.	Grey coat and grey trousers.	Grey coat, gold epaulettes and grey trousers.

A picture that is supposed to depict the Svea Artillery Regiment has the same uniform as the Göta Artillery Regiment above, but with a white collar that was the colour of the Vendes Artillery Regiment instead of the blue collar of Svea.

Additional pictures that have not been published in Gun Adler's article depict one more hussar, one general on horseback and six provincial infantry regiments (Södermanland, Jönköping, Kronoberg, Älvsborg, Skaraborg and Närke-Värmland). All provincial officers wear grey coats and grey trousers. The colours of the collar, cuffs and turnbacks are white for Älvsborg, red for Närke-Värmland and yellow for Skaraborg and Södermanland (the last three have gold epaulettes). For Jönköping they are red-red-yellow and the epaulettes are gold. For Kronoberg they are red-red-white and the epaulettes are silver.

Finally, von Borck's collection contains seven pictures of civilian uniforms. One of them is a maroon coat while the other six pictures contain green coats.

Model 1807

The only official model drawing of the m/1807 that was made was an example picture of a provincial soldier drawn by Carl Gustaf Gillberg. It depicts the Hälsinge Regiment and can be seen in its entirety at the top of this page, and in a cropped format below on the left. Since the only difference between the provincial infantry regiments was the regimental badge on the hats, a tableau of these badges was sufficient instead of model drawings for each regiment. The result can be seen below.

[SE/KrA/0429/008/17]	[SE/KrA/0429/008/19]

In addition to the above official images, J. B. Schiavonetti published a series of plates in Berlin around 1808 with the title "Uniformen der ganzen Königl. Schwedishen Armée". It consisted of six copper engravings made after drawings by Carl Gustaf Gillberg. Each copper engraving depicts a troop category without mentioning any regimental names. The identifications below are therefore my own based on the uniform drawings for m/1802.

Guard Regiments	Grenadier Regiments
Soldier from Göta livgarde (red colour), soldier from the Finnish Guards (yellow collar and red lapels) and officer from Svea livgarde (yellow colour) next to officers from the Finnish Guards and the Light Dragoons.	Livgrenadjärregementet in red (allotted in Östergötland) and Livregementet’s Grenadier Battalion in yellow (allotted in Västmanland and Södermanland.
Infantry
Jägerhorn’s garrison regiment in Sveaborg with blue jackets, provincial infantry with grey jackets and yellow hat plumes and the jägers with grey clothes and green hat plumes. The officer in the middle with a blue cross on his hat belongs to Uppland Regiment. The jäger with a white cross belongs to the Nyland Corps and the soldier with a red cross belongs to Hälsinge Regiment.
Heavy Cavalry	Light Cavalry
On the left in the foreground an officer from the Skånska Carabineer Regiment (formerly Södra skånska). On the right in the foreground an officer from the Livregementet’s Cuirassier Corps and in the middle an officer from the same regiment with a cuirass.	Light Dragoons with a white jacket, Västgöta Dragoon Regiment with red colour, in the middle a hussar (there were three such regiments: the Hussar Regiment, Livregementet’s Hussars Corps and former Norra skånska which in 1807 became Skånska Hussar Regiment), on the right two dragoons (Småland and Nyland?).

Artillery
Svea Artillery Regiment with blue collar and Horse Artillery with white collar.

References

Adler, Gun. 1806–1807 års uniform för det indelta infanteriet. (article in MAM 11). Stockholm (1950)
Bellander, Erik. Dräkt och uniform. Stockholm (1973)