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    Tony Barton

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    1. As someone with a lifelong interest in old musical instruments, this is an intriguing item .I like j42's "palpable antiquity ". If it's a fake , it's been done by someone with a pretty deep knowledge. While I can only judge from the photos, the shell appears to have been made from a single slice of wood. All wooden drums since the 19c century have been made from plywiood because of the extreme difficulty of getting a slice of self-wood big enough to form a shell, and because forming it from plywood is just so much cheaper and easier . The skins are convincing, as is the hempen rope ( again , something very hard to find recently ) , and the way it has been fitted in every detail, something that only a professional drum maker would know.The tightening buffs are again perfect. The distortion is also something that happens to hand made instuments, as is apparent if you look at "ethnic" drums . The paintwork is actually redolent of much period decorative work, done really quite quickly. It reminds me of Tudor household decoration , which survives is odd corners of historic houses .Which is not to say for a moment that it's that old . I think the drum is genuinely old, but as to what precise date I couldn't say... but pre industrial tools and machinery, which puts it at least into the early 19century. It could possibly be an "ethnic " item repainted, except that the construction is exactly that you would expect of an 18century European drum rather than something from Africa of Asia . The paint colours are also entirely period . Their thin application in places is nothing unusual , it happens when you work in oils. Granted that 19c and more recent Regimental drums are painted to a MUCH higher standard than this, but that takes a lot of time and trouble, and this might not be quite in that class.The painting is perhaps the least convincing part , but that doesn't rule it out as original . One might finally ask why anyone would go to the trouble : this would have taken perhaps ten days or more to make from scratch,obtaining the materials would have been damned hard , and the profit might be a little thin for that amount of work
    2. The jackets appear to be grey, which suggest a Volunteer unit of the 1860s or 70s. The tartan has a white overstripe, and thus might be McKenzie, which suggest a Volunteer battalion attached to the HLI , possibly the 6th. ButI'm guessing , and a Highalnd specialist needs to see this : might I suggest posting it on the Victorian Wars Forum ?
    3. There's no real way of telling the age of a piece of cloth without a detailed analysis of the thread count , the weave used , and the dye.... and even then you are left with the result of pre or post industrial , meaning roughly before or after 1860 . Anything else is a hunch based on experience , which can be pretty good, but is not absolutely reliable. As has already been said this looks like a theatrical prop : the fact that it's handsewn in parts is not in the least remarkable : the badges at least would have to be . The red cloth itself doesn't look much like a woolen cloth at all , though obviously that's hard to tell from a pic. But , sorry , this would have been made either for a pageant ( very popular in late Victorian and Edwardian times ), or possibly a stage production. The fact that the emblems are bodged and misunderstood completely puts it outside the military sphere .
    4. In response to this thread , I was lucky enough to be able to take some pics the other weekend, showing the latest thinking as to the precise kit worn by the 95th. Credit for this lies with the re-enactors of the 2nd Battalion 95th , whose work is ongoing. Notice the square-cut peak and the green braid round the base of the shako. Also the small copper priming flask on a cord round the neck , and stowed in a pocket under the left arm. There is a matching pocket on the other side. This side shows the sit of the soft pack , and the pouch used for non-rifle rounds used for rapid fire . Here's the pack inside : And outside : The books that tell you all about the " Trotter " knapsack with a wooden frame appear to be talking nonsense, a kind of received wisdom that no-one has questioned until now. The fact is that there is not a shred of contemporary evidence that it existed. The simple envelope type with open sides seems to have been replaced by this type around 1811 , but at present its details are conjectural . This reconstruction seems pretty sound. And one showing the sheer size of the haversack : much larger than ususally shown. Survivng haversacks are 21" by 12" :~ Many thanks to Paul Biggins for posing patiently.
    5. The pics in that Osprey are really rather poor and fuzzy , and very derivative of earlier books , rather than being based on fresh research . You would be better off looking at original items as on the 2nd Batt 95th re-enactors site , who seem to have done a lot of original work with old documents and surviving items. Napoleonic Infantry are still being depicted with Trotter wood framed knapsacks : an item that never existed ! It's one of those myths that arose from some kind of misunderstanding back in the 1920s, and has been copied and embroidered ever since in almost every reference book , often by authors who should know better . The Rifles would either have had the simple folding envelope knapsack , and perhaps at Waterloo the "1811" model , which had sides but no internal frame. The earliest frame knapsack seems to have been in about 1826 . Similarly , the re-enactors have established that square peaks were worn on 95th shakos ; and that they also wore a copper priming flask on a cord around their necks , and stowed in pockets in the sides of the jacket front. These are the sort of details that are not even noticed in the Osprey .
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