A Prussian infantry regiment carried forty-two musicians on its books — a bandmaster, nine established musicians and thirty-two assistants — and they were not a company's men. The band sat on the regimental staff and answered directly to the regimental adjutant. It belonged to the regiment itself rather than to any part of it, and the only hold a company had over the bandsmen was discipline and paperwork. Forty-two men, in a regiment that existed to fight, whose trade was music. Nine of them are in this box: the Drum Major with his mace, four fifers, four drummers.

Now put it beside the Guard band and look at the heads. The Guard have red horsehair falling off the Pickelhaube; these men have the bare spike. The Guard have white trousers; these have dark. Same nine figures, same instruments, the same swallow's nests on both shoulders — and one regiment is plainly senior to the other. That distinction is most of the Prussian army's idea of itself, and Tradition has painted it. In a diorama they play for the infantry of 1914, while the Kaiser's generals are who the Guard played for.

Tradition of London model 56. 54mm, white metal, hand-painted in gloss enamel. Nine-figure set — a Drum Major, four fifers and four drummers of the Prussian Line Infantry, 1914. Supplied in the Tradition Classic Red Box. Allow 2–3 weeks delivery.