A 19th century Hungarian wearing a jacket that originated in late 18th or early 19th century England. Named after the second Earl Spencer, it was at first worn by men but later adapted for ladies. As I happen to like and to wear such short jackets, I can now refer to them by their correct sartorial nomenclature. More dandy me.

‘Bartokfay in a short mulberry-coloured spencer-like jacket covered in braid and embroidery …’

This is from Banffy’s superb trilogy of novels charting the decline and fall of the Hungarian aristocracy, in most cases due to their own fecklessness. Be not feckless.

Source: Miklos Banffy, They Were Found Wanting, trans. Patrick Thursfield and Katalin Banffy-Jelen (London: Arcadia Books, 2011 (1937)), p. 112