I read with interest the article ‘Two examples of court dress inLeandro Preziosi’s photographs’ by Christopher Grech and Cecilia Lindhé (October 8).

Some years ago, I had the pleasure of doing similar research when it came to the dress worn in a particular photograph, by the Maltese architect and civil engineer Emanuele Luigi Galizia.

My friend and former colleague Robert Galea was kind enough to show me an actual button from that uniform, as well as a section of the bullion embroidery. The gilt button consisted of a mounted British Royal Arms of the Victorian era.

The three examples of the Dutch-consul ‘uniforms’ and that which Olof Gollcher is wearing, are all Levee Dress or coatee types.

However, the self-portrait of Leonardo Preziosi shows him in what is more of a single fronted frock-coat, a uniform favoured by Turkish Ottoman officers of theAbdülaziz I era (1861-1876), inclusive of a mameluke sword. This style was also worn by Pashas of the same period.

As a collector and researcher of uniform buttons, Levee Dress and Court Dress buttons fall on the borderline of my interest. Although I have a good reference to such buttons, I am still very interested to learn about what the buttons on Preziosi’s uniform may have looked like.