From Library Journal:
"This unique work illustrates French military costumes from the 1780s to 1830: infantry, cavalry, engineers, musicians, cadets, aviators (in a balloon corps!), fencing masters, Swiss Guards (and other foreign units under French command), and many other categories. All ranks are shown, as are the distinctive uniforms of many different regiments. Elting, a military historian, supplies informative comments on each plate. The nearly 2000 watercolors were painted for him by Knotel (d. 1963), a German authority on military costume whose father Richard (d. 1914) was in his time the world's leading expert in the field. The younger Knotel's Handbuch der Uniformkunde (Hamburg: Schulz, 1937; 7th ed.) is a classic but does not compare in beauty with the present work. Though Napoleonic Uniforms has an inadequate glossary and lacks page numbers, index, and an over-all table of contents, it is indispensable to anyone seriously interested in the subject."
to be definitive as to uniform cut, color, and appearance.No, there are numerous other museums, even in France (the Brunon collection, Musée de l'Émperi for example) - and then the private collection and then a lot of other primary sources, like the Elberfelder, Meissner, Dönitzer, Lüneburger, and a myriad of others - but definitive - not at all.
I have found the uniforms presented at Les Invalides in the Musee de l'Armee to be very helpful. And the three volumes I listed on this forum produced by the Museum, which pictured the entire collection as far as I can find, to be definitive as to uniform cut, color, and appearance. Those volumes are an immensely valuable resource.
Further, the West Point Museum has an outstanding uniform collection of the period. It isn't as numerous as the Musee de l'Armee, but well-worth seeing.
The uniform resource material in the Weiland, Bourgeois de Hambourg, Berka, Brunswick, and Zimmermann Manuscripts are also valuable resources. Some years ago they were published by Tradition Magazine and are well-worth having.
I was merely remarking on this comment:
"Indeed, but a lot of people seem to ignore new evidence and like to dwell in nostalgia."
I was not making a judgment on anyone or anything, merely giving a reason why anyone might 'ignore new evidence.'
That being said, the sometimes manic search and desire for 'new' evidence is somewhat somewhat frightening and disturbing in its intensity.
outdated and not to be trusted, needs to be double checked, perpetuates well entrenched myths about uniforms such as the Tirailleurs du Po.