Reliable sources can be wrong

[mick3272]

Greetings,
I have just been looking through R Simkins prints and came across this print. of The Scots Guards,
It just goes to show who you thought was reliable can get it wrong.

Have you come across technical errors in what you thought were reliable sources.
Mick

 

[billyturnip]

What's wrong with it Mick?

 

[mick3272]

What's wrong with it Mick?

Look at the piper

 

[billyturnip]

The drones are over the wrong shoulder?

 

[mick3272]

Yes the Pipes are back to front they should be on the Left Shoulder with the Bass drone ( longest) nearest the ear, the hands are also the wrong way round, the left hand should be on top looking after E to A and the right hand at the bottom looking after A to D.
Although not a uniform error it makes you think,
Mick

 

[billyturnip]

It makes me think perhaps the illustration was done from a photo that was a mirror image.

 

[mick3272]

If it was a mirror image the shawl and pin would be on the wrong side as well and that wont account for the hands the wrong way round
Mick

 

[billyturnip]

It proves one thing, nobody is infallible.

 

[Tecumsea]

I think it may have been artistic licence to balance up the illustration?

Keith

 

[billyturnip]

Aha!

 

[billyturnip]

Piper Beaton of The Essex Scottish Regiment playing left-handed bagpipes outside a ruined building, Xanten, Germany, 9 March 1945

 

[mick3272]

Aha!

Bloody BLOODY HELL If not something stronger.
I have been playing the Pipes For the last 50yrs both in
the Forces and civi st I have never seen a left handed Piper
Just goes to show.

CANCEL the thread
Mick

 

[mick3272]

Ps,
Im left handed in most things and My Pipe Major who taught me never gave me the opportunity
to play left handed.
Mick

 

[billyturnip]

I'm left handed.

 

[billyturnip]

My turn then....

 

[mick3272]

My turn then....


I can see this turning into a LEFT hand thread.

 

[Helm]

My turn then....

No woman should be out unaccompanied ?

 

[billyturnip]

No woman should be out unaccompanied ?

She isn't, she's got a horse with her.

 

[winfield]

I have a good friend who is a lefty piper. Concerning accuracy in references, the longer the reference has been in print the more likely it is to have information that has been made obsolete by ongoing research. What was gospel for a long time is out the window. Not much to do with your observations I know, but for this reason I try to get my mitts on the most recent info when I can.

 

[theBaron]

Yeah, I don't think the Simkins print is flipped, either, because the tunics button on the correct side, left side over right. I'm thinking, too, that Simkins worked from a photograph or photographs of the individuals, but that in the case of the piper, it may have been taken hastily and not posed properly.

Prost!
Brad