2-888-568 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

M. Jullien's Concert at Drury-Lane Theatre [London] - the Corps de Tambours, 1850. 'Only conceive Jullien's ordinary orchestra extended and elevated to the very "flies," the rear filled with players in uniform, from three military bands (the Royal Artillery, the Coldstream, and the 2nd Life Guards...), the centre occupied by the drummers of the French National Guards, with their Tambour Major, M. Barbier, perched with his golden stick on a raised platform, beneath which is the "ruler of the elements," M. Jullien, on his golden throne, and the foreground filled with the stringed instruments! What a general is required to organize these formidable forces, and what a concentration of the entente cordiale, to see the French drummers fraternising with our red-coats. And the Tambour-Major, with his cocked hat placed rectangularly on his gallic head, how fierce and yet courteous does he look!' From "Illustrated London News", 1850.