Casting an Army.

I pulled out my old "RAPCO", Rappaport and Company toy soldier molds and tried some casting. I haven't used these since the 1970s! I was surprised how quickly the little electric heater worked as I used to use an open flame torch! I still have pounds of Britainia metal and pewter. My first effort is a Union unit of 24 soldiers with two colorbearers, a bugler and an officer. The mold figures were based on the plastic Herald British made CW soldiers from the 50s and 60s. Some detail was lost making the figures fit in a two piece mold so the rifles are a bit distorted and the blanket rolls lop sided.





















I need a new Printer or just better ink for these flags!

Italian Cantinieres

The Italian States had Cantinieres or at least period artists and illustrators thought so.
Several examples below were from the state of Parma.






This woman below served in a Bersaglieri regiment. But it may be a fictional incident.



The woman on the right is either an armed fighter or a cantiniere for Garibaldi's troops.



These two photos below show a cantiniere posing alone, and with a unit of Garibaldi's troops in 1866. She is seated in the center.

German Marketenderin Reenactors

Rather than show Medieval and Renaissance reenactors with Marketenderinnen I'll stick to the 19th Century examples comparable with French examples.

Non-Military Marketenderin are seen in German Folk Groups. They retain the keg and cups for serving alcohol refreshments.




Several appear in groups from the 1930s in folk groups and military reenactment groups.



A Czech based reenactment unit that does a Prussian unit from the 1866 war has several women in versions of uniforms also shown in the Tin Figure sketches posted earlier..

The Germans had Cantinieres to.

The various German states had cantinieres with their regiments called Marketenderin.

This 1866 picture from the London Illustrated News show a wagon load of Prussian Marketenderin captured by the Austrians being brought to Vienna.





















Several Tin flat figures were made of these women represented by the modern sketches.
I wish I had the actual figures in my collection.


















This print shows one possibly two Marketenderin with the revolutionaries in 1848.












This set of paper soldiers features one Marketenderin in uniform driving a cart while a much out of scale woman leads it.
















A Franco Prussian War image.

Crimean War Reenactment.

I'm been in numerous reenactments in the US of the Civil War and Rev-War. Seeing reenactments in Europe is fun and especially seeing reenactments in the old Soviet Union. Their Napoleonic and WW II groups look very good and of respectable size for participants and spectators. When I found Crimean War reenactors I was very surprised.

Here is a TV news program of the Sebastopol Reenactment with some nice shots of area today. It's in French and Russian. Nice that the Zouaves have a sturdy cantiniere in their group.

False front 1/32 scale Store

I added this board and batten false front to the the BMC "Meade's HQ building to make a small town shop for the late 1800s. Good for the Civil War and the Wild West to display toy soldiers and military miniatures. The front is made from Popsicle Sticks and balsa wood. The sign was printed out on card board. The Sioux warriors are from Toy Soldiers Of San Diego and the women are conversions of Conte Collectable, Steve Weston, and Lemax Christmas figures. See some of my earlier entrees with buildings made from the BMC snap together buildings.

Drawers OVER Chemise 1874.

I found these images On-Line at a French site after a hint of their existence on a blog about 1800s illustration. The book was a series of essays of which this group was a commentary on current fashions.

The first one is a: "Stages of Dress" showing the drawers OVER the chemise and corset with a bustle next.



I've edited the pages with PHOTO SHOP to clarify the images and credit the book and page number on which they can found. These two below shows no chemise bottom over the drawers and show fashions from 10 years earlier in the 1860s.

More on Open Drawers. Nana 1882 edition

A nice illustration from Chapter 5 of....

Titre : Nana
Auteur : Zola, Émile (1840-1902
Éditeur : C. Marpon et E. Flammarion ([Paris)
Date d'édition : 1882

http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k103343f.r=Nana+Zola.langFR

Here' the French text....
Chapter Five

".....Et il but d'un trait. Le comte Muffat et le marquis de Chouard l'avaient imité. On ne plaisantait plus, on était à la cour. Ce monde du théâtre prolongeait le monde réel, dans une farce grave, sous la buée ardente du gaz. Nana, oubliant qu'elle était en pantalon, avec son bout de chemise, jouait la grande dame, la reine Vénus, ouvrant ses petits appartements aux personnages de l'Etat. A chaque phrase, elle lâchait les mots d'Altesse Royale, elle faisait des révérences convaincues, traitait ces chienlits de Bosc et de Prullière en souverain que son ministre accompagne. Et personne ne souriait de cet étrange mélange, de ce vrai prince, héritier d'un trône, qui buvait le champagne d'un cabotin, très à l'aise dans ce carnaval des dieux, dans cette mascarade de la royauté, au milieu d'un peuple d'habilleuses et de filles, de rouleurs de planches et de montreurs de femmes. Bordenave, enlevé par cette mise en scène, songeait aux recettes qu'il ferait, si Son Altesse avait consenti à paraître comme ça, au second acte de la Blonde Vénus....."

...and the English translation.

"....Then he drank it off. Count Muffat and the Marquis de Chouard had followed his example. There was no more jesting now--the company were at court. Actual life was prolonged in the life of the theater, and a sort of solemn farce was enacted under the hot flare of the gas. Nana, quite forgetting that she was in her drawers and that a corner of her shift stuck out behind, became the great lady, the queen of love, in act to open her most private palace chambers to state dignitaries. In every sentence she used the words "Royal Highness" and, bowing with the utmost conviction, treated the masqueraders, Bosc and Prulliere, as if the one were a sovereign and the other his attendant minister. And no one dreamed of smiling at this strange contrast, this real prince, this heir to a throne, drinking a petty actor's champagne and taking his ease amid a carnival of gods, a masquerade of royalty, in the society of dressers and courtesans, shabby players and showmen of venal beauty. Bordenave was simply ravished by the dramatic aspects of the scene and began dreaming of the receipts which would have accrued had His Highness only consented thus to appear in the second act of the Blonde Venus...."

Some more...

"...Cette fois, Nana ne se retourna point. Elle avait pris la patte de lièvre, elle la promenait légèrement, très attentive, si cambrée au-dessus de la toilette, que la rondeur blanche de son pantalon saillait et se tendait, avec le petit bout de chemise. Mais elle voulut se montrer sensible au compliment du vieillard, elle s'agita en balançant les hanches...."

...and the translation.

"...This time Nana did not turn round. She had taken up the hare's-foot and was lightly manipulating it. All her attention was concentrated on this action, and she bent forward over her toilet table so very far that the white round contour of her drawers and the little patch of chemise stood out with the unwonted tension. But she was anxious to prove that she appreciated the old man's compliment and therefore made a little swinging movement with her hips...."