Thoughts on The Electorate of Bustenberg

One of the many surprises that came out of the eleven crates of unpainted 18th century figures from the collection of Eric Knowles was number of unit boxes designated 'The Electorate of Bustenberg'. The boxes consisted of units of horse and foot and rather a lot of gunners with figures from the final quarter of the 18th century that eventually filled an entire crate. The units all had names so a certain amount of preparation and forethought had been undertaken by Eric and indeed, the whole set up formed a complete and sizeable army for the period.

Nobody, including Eric's son Bill, knew anything about this particular project of Eric's and aside from some small notes about uniform details - Eric was very organised about such things - contained in a few of the unit boxes themselves, the whole thing is a bit of a mystery.

The Army of the Electorate of Bustenberg

Cavalry

Erzherzogin Leibgarde - 10 figures

Bustenhalter Kuirassiers - 18 figures

Fieldelbaum Dragoons - 16 figures

Jäger Zu Pferde Biergarten - 14 mounted plus 7 dismounted figures

Infantry

Garde Zu Fuss - 33 figures

Von Boozy - 33 figures

2nd Line - 36 figures

Vlaming Fusiliers Limburg - 34 figures

Vlaming Fusiliers Brabant - 36 figures

Vlaming Regiment Ghent - 31 figures

Der Freischutz Light Infantry 1st regiment - 28 figures

Der Freischutz Light Infantry 2nd regiment - 22 figures

Combined Grenadiers - 14 figures

There is also 46 gunners as well as mounted generals etc.

Interestingly the figures are quite late in the century compared to the rest of the collection as the infantry are wearing trousers and bicornes whilst the heavy cavalry looks suspiciously like British Napoleonic heavy dragoons.

It is fascinating to speculate exactly what Eric intended for this part of his collection although given that he had the 18th century already covered with his historical armies he may not have prioritised it. I must confess that seeing this and all the attendant figures for the other forces did make me think rather whimsically about my own aspirations in the 'imagi-nation' direction.

The Grand Duchy of Artois and the Electorate of Kronenbourg have existed as an idea for at least ten years, probably longer. I still have the list regimental names for each side - Artois taking theirs from the names of various wines whilst Kronenbourg are after continental beers.

The one thing that struck me though about all this is that these ideas need to be acted upon or, as in the case of the Electorate of Bustenberg, they pass away into history with their creator.