Ok, its a quiet Saturday afternoon here, first weekend off in about three weeks and this idea has been rattling around in my brain housing group for a while. The first image was purchased off of Ebay.de (I always like the guys posing with the noodle guns), when he arrived in the mail and I got a good look at him, a few things struck me as rather odd. First of all, he didn't quite have a Germanic look to him, thin moustache, hair pooching out from under his pickelhaube..and then there are his equipments, his pouch loops and belt are of white leather, correct for Grenadier regiments but he is holding what appears to be a M1860 Fusilier Gewehr and on his shoulder strap the number 8, certainly not a Fusilier regiment. What gives with this guy..and lastly and maybe most importantly, he is wearing trousers with double stripes, something I haven't seen before (yet) with German uniforms of the era. Aha! I thinks to meeself, we've caught a spy, the Paris-Troyes photographer logo was yet another nail in his coffin. On to further research and quickly the air was let out of my spy-catching balloon. Seems the German occupied Troyes in 1870 and the image bears the date of November 11th 1870 (odd isn't it) on the reverse.
So much for that idea, however questions do remain about his get-up and trousers, the second image depicts a French mounted artilleryman with double stripes on his trouser seams and in the third and final CDV a Gardes Mobile officer is shown posing manfully with a captured Needle Gewehr and perhaps a M1867 Pickelhaube missing its wappen (darn those blasted attaching prongs, they always slip loose) both props likely captured from their German owners. Soldiers of all times and armies have enjoyed posing with, and in, captured uniforms and equipment of their former adversaries and with the advent of photography images are left behind for us to ponder over and write about on quiet Saturday afternoons.
Larmo
So much for that idea, however questions do remain about his get-up and trousers, the second image depicts a French mounted artilleryman with double stripes on his trouser seams and in the third and final CDV a Gardes Mobile officer is shown posing manfully with a captured Needle Gewehr and perhaps a M1867 Pickelhaube missing its wappen (darn those blasted attaching prongs, they always slip loose) both props likely captured from their German owners. Soldiers of all times and armies have enjoyed posing with, and in, captured uniforms and equipment of their former adversaries and with the advent of photography images are left behind for us to ponder over and write about on quiet Saturday afternoons.
Larmo
The helmet on the first picture looks also too small for his head.