Wurtz-Pées - Bavarian Infantry

 Hello,

Today, I’m sharing another magazine insert from "Soldats Napoléoniens" featuring hand-painted figures from the Wurtz-Pées collection. This time, the six pages cover Bavarian infantry. As beautiful as these figures are to look at—and as impressive as this family collection of paper figures is—these Bavarian examples clearly demonstrate that they are unsuitable for drawing historical conclusions about Napoleonic-era uniforms. I consider myself a hobbyist uniform researcher, and Bavarian uniforms are a particular passion of mine (being Bavarian myself). Unfortunately, a glance at these figures reveals many painted details that bear little resemblance to the reality of the period depicted. For instance, Bavarian non-commissioned officers did not wear French-style sleeve rank insignia; regimental musicians wore long coats and hats; and officers never wore gorgets and sashes simultaneously... Some of the reverse sides are interesting, too. The cardboard backing used here sometimes bears the date 1856! This suggests that these figures originated in the final phase of the collection's creation, whereas the production period is usually cited as 1825 to 1850.

Best regards,

Andreas