Height overall: 39cm (15.5in)
2nd Battalion, East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) side drum with brass cylinder, wood hoops, leather rope tensioning system, and restored hand painted regimental emblazon, by C. Nicholls, comprising twin crowned Tudor roses and Elizabethan dragon vert on a buff ground over the motto ‘Veteri Frondescit Honore’ (Its Ancient Honour Flourishes), flanked by Battle Honours from Blenheim (1704) to Baghdad (1918). Signed to the side of the emblazon ‘Henry Potter & Co (Drums) Ltd., 36/38 West Street / Charing X Rd / London.’ Top hoop bearing makers label of Potters of Aldershot.
George Potter & Co., of Aldershot was an off shoot of the London based military drum and instrument maker Henry Potter of Charing Cross that was established by Samuel Potter (1772-1836) in 1810. Samuel Potter was the senior drum-major of the Coldstream Guards and the author ‘The Art of Beating the Drum’ (1815) and ‘The Art of Playing the Fife and The Bugle’. He named his business for his new born son Henry Samuel Potter (1810-1876), as military regulations disallowed his direct involvement in a commercial venture until leaving the Army in 1817. As a Chelsea Hospital out-pensioner Samuel worked in the business at 20 King Street, Westminster. His son Henry (1810-1876) carried it on at 37 Marsham Street, and later at 2 Bridge Street, before moving to Charing Cross in 1858. In 1868 Henry’s younger brother George (1846-1924) established George Potter & Co., at Bank Street, Aldershot. In 1918 George Potter of Aldershot opened the well known shop at the intersection of Aldershot’s Queen’s Road and Grosvenor Road, aka Potter’s Corner, which continued drum making in the traditional manner until the introduction of rod tensioned and transfer decorated drums in the 1960s.