"Brandenburg-Prussia Artillery Colors before 1700 ?" Topic

I purchased a nice set of old Kieler/Ochel flats a while back, labeled "Brandenburg Artillerie 1680-1700". It contains a suitably imposing gun and a dozen crew and command figures. I've just now got around to priming some of the figures and put them in the painting queue.

Now I realize that uniform and gun carriage color info is mighty scanty for this period. I have the Condray booklet, but I think the blue carriages and uniforms are for the WSS. I'm not at all confident about rolling that back to the time of the Great Elector or War of the League of Augsburg. I did find a picture of a painted set of Branderburg artillery, 1683 on the Peipp Miniature site. Most of the figures wear brown coats with red stockings, then gun carriage is natural wood.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. As a backup plan, I suppose I could paint them as Austrians. ;-)

Steve

Maybe Daniel Schorr has the information that you are seeking, or post the question on the League of Augsburg website.

The only near contemporary illustrations of Brandenburg gun carriages are from the series of tapestries illustrating the triumphs of the Great Elector, Frederick William. These tapestries were executed in the 1690's, and represent the then uniforms and equipment. Gun carriages in the tapestries are brown, indicating a natural wood color. Fred Fürst has a series of plates, one of which shows artillery from the time of the Great Elector, and in it the gun carriage is red, but I'm not certain of his source. Perhaps both colors were used.

The brown faced red uniform is that worn by the Büchsenmeister, cannonier or gunner. It was not the uniform of all artillerymen. In the 1670's and 80's there was no prescribed uniform for the artillery, and they are generally illustrated in different coat colors and headgear.

Hope this helps

Thanks, guys. Yes, that's very helpful, Derfflinger. And now looking further into it, it seems that these figures are actually listed as Austrian in the Kieler catalog. Probably I'll just go ahead and paint them as Austrians since I already have some others suitable for the Turkish Wars.

Steve