Look at the shoulders. Those winged flaps are Schwalbennester — swallow's nests — and they are why you can tell a musician at a glance. They go back to the eighteenth century and to mounted bands, where they began as something entirely practical: a pad to stop a trumpet or horn strap chafing through the shoulder of a man's coat. Then the Baroque got hold of them. By 1914 the padding had become braid and lace, and a Prussian bandsman wore his regiment's prestige on both shoulders. The thing that began as a rag against a rubbing strap ended as the thing that made him unmistakable.

Nine men: a Drum Major with his mace, four fifers, four drummers. Red horsehair on the Pickelhaube, black and red and white, and swallow's nests on every shoulder. This is parade dress, because a band was for being looked at — a regiment's most visible property. In a diorama it pairs with the Line Infantry band, which is the same thing without the Guard's money, and with the Kaiser and his generals, who are dressed for the same afternoon. The German infantry of 1914 are what all of them were about to become.

Tradition of London model 57. 54mm, white metal, hand-painted in gloss enamel. Nine-figure set — a Drum Major, four fifers and four drummers of the Prussian Guard Infantry, 1914. Supplied in the Tradition Classic Red Box. Allow 2–3 weeks delivery.