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Pictures of historical military uniforms – the Adolf Pochon archive

Adolf Pochon, a goldsmith from Bern, devoted his free time to researching and documenting pictures of historical military dress. He produced accurate drawings of the uniforms of all Swiss regiments, and those of Swiss troops in foreign service.

Archiv Pochon — Examples of uniform pictures and other documents from the Pochon archive (photo: NL, Simon Schmid)

Adolf Pochon (1869–1931) grew up in Bern and trained to become a goldsmith in Germany. In 1899, he and his brother Hans took over their father’s business in Bern. In his free time, Pochon painstakingly put together one of the biggest collections of pictures of Swiss military dress and uniforms of Swiss regiments in foreign service. He mostly copied the historical images as drawings and then coloured them with watercolours. The works also came about thanks to lively exchange with various collectors and painters from across Europe. He recorded his extensive knowledge of Swiss military history in the publications “Schweizer Militär vom Jahr 1700 bis auf die Neuzeit” (co-published with Adolf Zesiger in 1906) and “Das Berner Regiment von Erlach in kgm. Französischer Dienst, 1672–1792” (published posthumously by Rudolf von Tavel).

The Swiss National Library acquired Adolf Pochon’s archive between 1931 and 1933 from his widow (it was later supplemented by other descendants). The archive centres on the over 1,400 watercolour drawings by Pochon. They show soldiers from Swiss companies and Swiss troops in foreign services, including French, Neapolitan, Dutch, Sardinian, and in the Vatican. Letters exchanged with various painters, such as Italo Cenni, Fernand Landolt, Jan Joynck von Papendrecht, and Herbert Knötel are testament to Pochon’s active correspondence.

Content and scope

The archive comprises more than 1,400 watercolour drawings of the uniforms of soldiers from different regiments in Switzerland, and of soldiers in foreign service.
The correspondence includes over 500 letters from various painters, collectors, and institutions. They document Pochon’s active professional engagement with historical military painting in Europe. The holdings also feature a collection of texts, visual material, and an index created by Adolf Pochon.

Other documents on Adolf Pochon are kept in the Burgerbibliothek Bern and the Zentralbibliothek Solothurn.