Overall: 43cm (17in) x 58cm (23in)
Engraving with contemporary hand colouring. Band of the 1st Foot Guards showing the regimental band of the Grenadier Guards at St. James’s Palace. Published anonymously circa 1790. Sheet: 31cm x 46cm. Framed and glazed.
‘The Musical Directory’, London of 1794 gives 34 Tufton Street, Westminster as the address of Mr Elrington, flute player and bandmaster of the 1st Foot Guards. The same source mentions sixteen other members of the band, five of whom had the same address. The instrumentation was one flute, six clarinets, three bassoons, three horns, one trumpet, two serpents and one drum. Another report of the period includes 'Turkish Music', referring to the contemporary fashion, seen here, for flamboyantly dressed black musicians, a cymbalist, tambourine player and bass drummer. The Grenadier Guards are recorded as having black musicians from 1772. The triangle, flutes and side drums were played by boys of young age, hence the diminutive figures. Behind the band, a company colour is paraded in front of the Guard.