"Musicians' uniforms for Gentlemen's regiments" Topic

Kronosaf is silent on this. Anyone know/guess what these French cavalry trumpeters were wearing in the SYW?

Just a guess

They would have been uniformed by the proprietor-colonels and so would have worn that livery.
See my blog on this subject

nigbilpainter.blogspot.fr

@ Nigel.
Thanks.
Btw lovely blog & very impressive figures.

I've "favourited" you for future inspiration.

Yes, as you can see it is very hard to trace colonel's livery and, indeed, most are speculation. Some are known – like Conti – but most are lost. One way to try is to look at some of the musician's livery in the WSS which seem to be quite well illustrated or to look at drummer lace in the infantry. If the family name continues through to the middle of the 18th century, you can assume that the colour schemes are probably the same.

Are you looking for any regiments / liveries in particular?

I like to have historical units but not necessarily tied to a specific OOB, so any of several of the Gentlemen's regiments of horse (white coats, red facings).

I'm still looking through material to get a hint as Nigel suggested.

Hello OC, sorry for the delay – day job interfering…

The link below shows the livery of Chabrillant according to Lucien Rousselot:

link

It also gives a good idea of the way the livery lace, where worn, would be following the seams of the coat, as well as edging the saddlecloth and holster covers. Exact arrangements could vary of course – the richer colonels had more lace added, until the coat was almost covered in it (as can still be seen on the British Household Cavalry trumpeters' state dress).

In addition to Chabrillant's, based on the relevant Osprey book by René Chartrand the following colonel's liveries are known for the 1750s. How far you want to go on the lace detail will of course depend on the size of your figures and the steadiness of your brush hand…

Orléans: red lined blue, white and blue lace with red-and-white chequered borders
[see also the Conti and Chartres lace patterns – they were all related…]

Condé: yellowish buff lined red, red velvet lace

Bourbon: buff lined red, white lace

Clermont: light buff lined crimson, wide silver lace with narrow crimson borders.
A 1735 illustration shows a black trumpeter for this regiment, wearing the above livery with a white turban and plume.

Conti: pale yellow lined blue, white and blue lace

Penthièvre: red lined blue, blue-yellow-blue lace

Charost: yellow lined blue , velvet lace of red, yellow and blue wavy lines

Beauvilliers: orange-yellow [no details]

Grammont: yellow lined red, blue and red lace

Crussol: white lined red

Chartres: red lined blue, blue lace with red-and-white chequered borders

Wurttemberg: yellow lined black, yellow and black lace

Montcalm: grey lined red, lace probably yellow and red

Then there are the three senior regiments, whose colonels played musical chairs in 1759: The Turenne family gave up Colonel Général to Béthune, who until then had been Mestre de Camp Général, which office and regiment were taken over by Castries, the former Commissaire Général, whose office and regiment went to a member of the Harcourt family.

Turenne: white faced black and covered in yards of black lace (see Colonel Général under Cavalry here link )

Béthune: red lined blue, blue worsted lace

Castries: green lined red, orange-yellow and black lace

Harcourt: red lined yellow, red and yellow lace
(The Harcourt family also owned a cavalry regiment in their own right, uniformed in red, whose trumpeters would have worn the same livery, possibly less heavily laced than those of Commissaire Général.)