Well another tumbleweed in history…
Our friend/ frenemy PLD recently dropped some more hints- this time about regimental children, and coincidentally drummers, tambour, posting this undated and description free snippet:
Shame about the plume [being cut off] !
Interesting, what appears ‘mid Empire’ to me- the gold lace applied in exactly the same form as per the 1786? regulations. Being gold laced he is perhaps atypical as well, a bandsman rather than ‘in the line’ drummer.
Another facet noted by PLD as a consequence, is that not all ‘de ligne’ drums were ‘brass’ as so often depicted. In fact he cites a few regiments where ‘all wooden’ drums are recorded. That probably explains the ‘painted’ versions seen, particularly in the Revolution. Guess we have to wait for some extremely bloated tomes later this year.
NB- as of writing today the awaited ‘Heavy Cavalry’ has still not been published, per previous press of end-of-January announcements.
[ *Edit-Feb24 ]- Release date now revised to April’24.
regards ~davew