a different drum

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 .
Following the drum, a nation's call to arms led by- oft times a child-answered by women following their men.
It's no wonder women wanted to wear a man's regimentals.

Philipe Mercier's The Young Drummer Boy, 18th c.

in 1982

Drummer "boy" straps, brass buttons, capes and what all- run through fashion's timeline-just as war runs through History's. Great military details gave women's clothing much needed panache-stepping away from the frills and fripperies that would smother any mistress. There was WAR to be fought-multiples- in each and every century & the military mode of dress for women moved along with the times.
Queens dressed to rally and hail her armies.

Catherine the Great wearing the uniform of her Preobrazhenskii regiment

painted by Vigilius Eriksen, 1762.

This Reynolds portrait was first seen at the Royal Academy's Somerset House in 1780. The costume- adapted from military uniform-specifically the Lady's husband-Sir Richard Worsley's Hampshire Militia uniform-became the fashion during England's war with the colonies.

Sir Joshua Reynolds portrait of Lady Worsley, 1776

Who knows when someone got the wild idea to set a drum on its ear-and make it a smart looking table? No doubt there is a history.
I imagine some war weary soldier- a Captain perhaps- stretching out his limbs one evening-looking about for a hassock-and finding only a drum.
A Star is Born...

 James Tissot's Captain Frederick Gustavus Burnaby, 1870.

 Belgian Side Drum,1850- 1900.

here

tables at 1st dibs

Cecil Beaton lived at Ashcombe, a property set deep amongst the Wiltshire Downs, for seven years during the 1930s. This chair was made by Beaton for his own bedroom, to complement the circus murals that were painted on a wet Sunday afternoon by his friends, many of whom were starlets and darlings of the 1930s. As Beaton describes in his memoirs, the room was decorated in the most outrageous of colours, with each of his friends responsible for different panels, featuring 'circus performers, baroque emblems, barley-sugar poles and flowered mirrors'. from Richard Buckle's Self Portrait with Friends, The Selected Diaries of Cecil Beaton, 1926-1974

Chairs from 1st Dibs in the Beaton style &

below a Child's version attributed to Beaton at Tod Donobedian

Beaton's Bedroom and his gang of artists-standing around one of his drum tables with a little drummer lass.

Not to be out done in the bedroom-Beaton used drums as end tables in his Studio. It's a room that is as viable today as any within the pages of World of Interiors.

How spiffing is this etsy piece from Artisanworks Inc.? Vintage 1920-30's Ludwig snare drum on custom steambent Art Nouveau style stand. HERE

Queen Louise of Prussia in her Hussar inspired riding habit,

 painted by Friedrich Wilhelm Ternite, in 1809, and again in 1810.

Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatina in the uniforms of their respective regiments, 

the Voznesenskiye Ulahns and the Elisavetgradsky Hussars, July 13th, 1913.

Following the drum, always a hearing a different drummer, with his mind on war, Rex Whistler painted the young Laura Ridley in the regimentals of the Northumberland Hussars, 1940.

from the book, In Search of Rex Whistler

Anatole Demidoff, age 7,  portrait by Robert Lefevre,1820.

Military dress has returned-seen everywhere-couture, fashion in the street-and worn best so & often by French Vogue's editor Emmanuelle Alt. I've got a sense she sees it quite literally as her modern uniform-with skinny oh so skinny jeans in black or white.

I've my own cape that I grab to wear when the weather is cold. I love the military lines-and I've always-always heard the beat of a different drum-

and usually I follow.

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