Pennsylvania musician image

[markj]

Greetings,

I'm not quite sure what to make of this guy but it's interesting to note that he's wearing checked trousers with his frock coat!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2220491637&category=13960

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[artillerycorp 1st Ill]

Re: Pennsylvania musician image

Greetings All,

I saw this image also and thought it was interesting. Could he actually be a militia officer? I don't see anything that would indicate he is a musician. Speculation on my part is that the person selling the image feels that he is a musician because of the fancy trim.

I found the cartridge box interesting. Reminds me of a Napoleonic "Old Guard" box with the brass on the flap. Hopefully someone can shed more light on it.


Good to be here,

Steve Curtis
1st Illinois Light Artillery

[ThehosGendar]

Re: Pennsylvania musician image

He's a musician.

I've seen four images of Federal brass band members wearing shoulder boards. I don't know the significance of that, but it, of course, led to some little snert professing that field musicians wore shoulder boards too because that he saw it in "a whole bunch of images" but couldn't tell me about them. I've never come across an account or order describing the reason for the bars, but if anyone knows, could you please post it along to me? ( thehosgendar@optonline.net )

The following three images are from the picture book "Touched by Fire," and don't have any useful captions to identify them:







Here is a musician wearing a frock nearly identical to the musician in the e-bay picture, minus the cuff trim of course:



The pouch that's hanging from his belt is not a cartridge box, but a parade music pouch, similar to this one, from the Ætna Cornet Band of New Britain, Connecticut, circa 1850:





While I don't know what "C P" stands for, I can be pretty certain that "B B" is for "Brass Band."

[artillerycorp 1st Ill]

Re: Pennsylvania musician image

Jason,

Thanks for the info on the music pouch. You learn something new everyday. Until now I made the mistake of assuming that when I saw a pouch like the one in the picture it was a cartridge box and not a parade music pouch. Well you know what they say about assuming. Next time I'll check my facts before leaping.

Sheepishly stepping back,

Steve Curtis
1st Illinois Light Artillery

[ephraim_zook]

Re: Pennsylvania musician image

I'm going to go way out on a limb here and suggest, without any substantive justification, the possibility that it may not be a CW image at all.

I don't know if the pics below will attach or if you will need to click the links. The first image below is of the Union Coronet Band, Yorkville, PA. Post-war. Note the frock coats, very similar to some of the others seen in this thread, and the pickelhaube -- spiked helmets! The second image is a present-day photo of the Berlin, PA city band. They have long worn CW-type uniforms. Take away the modern sunglasses and look at what you've got.

http://pirate.shu.edu/~myzieron/cwpix/phot1266.jpg

http://pirate.shu.edu/~myzieron/cwpix/fife2.jpg

Lastly, check out this remarkable website: http://www.harrogate.co.uk/harrogate-band/misc06c1.htm There are hundreds of early 1900s brass band pictures to examine. Many of them bear at least some resemblance to cw bands.

Not to debunk anyone elses' ideas -- just adding more to look at and think about.

regards
Ron Myzie

ps: Jason, how did you attach your photos? The "manage attachments" window recognizes the images but they don't appear.

thanks in advance for your help.
Ron