"Why so many "pink" Prussians?" Topic

I work daily from 6:30 Central US time to about 5:00 PM, but "step out" from time to time to refresh.

I as scanning through Engelmann and Dorn's "Infantry..of Fred" today, and counted the number of regiments using rose/pink/carmine or whatever "pinkish" facings. Why so many?

7th – lapels, cuffs, collar, shoulder tab, grenadier mitre top.
18th – same plus turnbacks, and grenadier mitre top and read band. Add whit tapes with tassles for sleeves and lapels.
31st – rose collar, cuffs and turnbacks. Mitre top and band.
40th – Fusiliers. rose collar, tab, cuffs, vest and breeches. Grenadier Mitre and Fusilier cap all rose with white metal fittings. Pink madness! This regiment had the heaviest casualties of the 7 Years war. They weren't exactly "in the pink!"
41st – Fusiliers. carmine(?) cap, collar, lapels cuffs, turnbacks, shoulder tab. Grenadiers all carmine with yellow metal.

5 Seems like a lot for 49 infantry regiments.

Interesting observation…GdeP.

Once the fashion bug of pink hits you, other colors seem so lam. But I expect Frederick got a great deal on pink cloth one year.

It's a pretty color?

..rabbit – or did someone leave a wagonload of red out in the rain?!

Yes, grossman, a good facing color for dark blue. I understand one of the high-number British light dragon regiments went to rose/pink, but it faded very quickly.

I didn't pay any attention to the founding of these 5 regiments, and I wonder if they may have Polish/East Prussian roots.

GdeP

The idea that pink is a "girly" colour is a fairly recent one.

"In Europe and the United States, pink is often associated with girls, while blue is associated with boys. These colors were first used as gender signifiers just prior to World War I (for either girls or boys), and pink was first established as a female gender signifier in the 1940s.[38][39] In the 20th century, the practice in Europe varied from country to country, with some assigning colors based on the baby's complexion, and others assigning pink sometimes to boys and sometimes to girls.[40]"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink

Moreover, in the Middle Age pink was a very "male" color, being associated with the flesh, and with a particular bit of flesh…..

Maybe the dye was readily available or easy to produce?

exactly, the darker the color, the more dye that had to used with repeated re-dying. Pink is a cheap "red"

This is the era of the Lace Wars after all.

It's about aesthetics. Given a dark blue coat what colours contrast? Pale blue is reserved for frie korps and green can't be used either as it clashes. That leaves white, black, creams, reds and yellows. So the choices are relatively small and pink is very attractive against blue.

On the other hand, if you take the red as used as a coat colour by the British and Hanoverians, the choices are huge – almost every colour in the spectrum. That applies to a white coat too.

No comment on the amount of yellow worn?

Frederick got a good deal on the rose/pink cloth. He was a notorious tightwad.

The real answer: I have no idea.

That's not 'Pink' – that's 'Ponceau Rot' !

Altfritz: I would consider yellows, buffs and the like as "standard" to go with dark blue – perhaps because of the uniform George Washington wore, and the Duke of Brunswick who commanded in the west during the 7YW.

"True" yellow in Engelmann & Dorn seems to be…

1. 10th – Cuffs, Grenadier mitre top and band.
2. ?35th Fusiliers – shown as an odd greenish-yellow which is supposed to be "sulphur yellow." Knoetel shows this a very pale yellow, no greenish cast. collar, cuffs, vest, breeches, tops and bands of both grenadier mitres and fusilier caps.
3. 39th Fusiliers – same as 35th, light yellow.
4. 47th Fusiliers – yellow collar, lapels, cuffs, grenadier and fusilier caps.

So that is 4 regiments, whereas "pink" was used by 5.

IR15 Guards wore yellow small clothes.

Simple response – single word answer: ‘Rococo'. The tight fit low budget ‘Puritan' Prussian take of it. Quite stylish, really. The template for military dress in Europe thereafter. Different to the universally accepted more stylish France or England during this period, but with a style of its own.

I would ask, why so few?

Goodness! You'd be appalled at my Army of Princess Trixie of Saxe Burlap und Schleswig Beerstein. They all wear pink coats! It works with EVERY facing color!

Regiment Color
Saxe Burlap White
Schleswib Beerstein Pink (white lace)
Riseundshine Red
Hesse Herbox Orange
Hesse Hydrox light green
Hesse Hyjynx Black
Floatsam und Jetzam (Princessely marines ) Dark Blue
Hillbillyhausen Dark Green
Alt Zweibak Light blue
Trunz und Taxis Yellow,
Alt MacDonald Lavender
Jung Macdonald Violet
Admiral Battenhatch Grey

Then there's the
Rottingham Horse
Lord Donefore's Horse
Lord Blackenbloo's Horse
Lord Beaverhunt's Horse.
Lord Flatbroke's Horse…

Orange

Otto, you have always been the "painting machine!" I remember you bringing about 1,000 freshly-painted 30mm troops to a wargame convention in the Philadelphia area in "the last century." When you opened the first huge box, we almost all passed out from the odor of paint thinner!

I confess, I have always loved the smell of turpentine on a Saturday morning!

GdeP

Dear Garde De paris

I think you have me confused with someone else. I don't remember that, but then, I'm old.

Yes, Otto. I am old as well – 77.

But there may be another Otto Schmidt, wargamer, lurking near you in New Jersey!

Ray Mowery, GdeP

RAY MOWERY!!!

Oh my GOD! How have you been!!!!!! Please post me at sigurd@eclipse.net !!!! It's been over 40 years!!!! Pleae post… I want to catch up!

Hello, OSchmidt!

Sent you a post last evening. "Talk" when we can?

GdeP

I seem to remember a book called something like Pink Prussia..Although it was talking about the German army of circa 1900. The premise was that conscription encouraged homosexuality as young men spent all their time in an all male environment….

I know, nothing to do with the point of the post…

I have however painted up the 40th Regiment, just because of the pinkness..

Speaking of which…
Allegedly there was a pink Albatros in the Great War flown by a young man who, ahem, had little interest in the Fairer Sex. He was an Ace.

The first Hessian regiment I painted was Erbprinz, because the pink/rose facings look absolutely fabulous with the silver fusilier cap. The grenadiers were even more butch.

Crogge 1757 is spot on

"Simple response – single word answer: ‘Rococo'. "

It was a colour very much en vogue at this time.

Here is the story of the "Pink Lady", the pink Albatros flown in the Great war:
link

It seems that there is no record of an actual "pink" Albatros, but it could have been anything from a German Mauve, lilac, (I had both colors in my "German" biplane paint collection before the bottles dried up) or even the setting sun reflecting off a silver Pfalz biplane.

So, like the "pink" facings above, it really could have been anything. Pink is in the eye of the beholder, right Bob Costas?

Pink brings out the colour in the eyes :)