The photo of the drum horse ‘Queen Adelaide’ that was reproduced in the Navy & Army Illustrated 17 Jan 1896, was used by Richard Simkin as the basis of his artwork which was produced as a chromolithograph print. In this version the plume on the drummer’s lance cap is clearly red. The printers have been careful to show the cream colour of the horse so that it cannot be mistaken for a grey. Simkin has put the reins in the drummer’s left hand whereas this is not the case in the photo. The photo shows the drum banner to have a dark cloth appearing on one side, concealing the rider’s leg; this is shown to be red. The details of the shabraque, in the photo, appear dark which indicates that the embroidery and edging lace are yellow rather than gold. This seems to be confirmed by the colouring of the print which shows them as vivid yellow compared with the duller gold lace and embroidery of the drum banner.
