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Lot Essay
The design of this monumental bronze column is taken from the model erected to the glory of Napoleon I in the Place Vendôme, Paris. Napoleon envisaged the column would replace the statue of Louis XIV which was erected and pulled down on 12 August 1792. The column was to imitate the celebrated column of the Roman Emperor Trajan in Rome. The bronze for the Place Vendôme model came from 1250 cannons taken from the Russian and Austrian armies after the French victory at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1803.
The column was originally surmounted by a statue of Napoleon as a Roman Emperor, with crowned laurel wreath and holding a globe in one hand, surmounted by a statue of Victory. During the Restauration, the statue was replaced by a figure of Napoleon representing the Emperor re-clothed in a raincoat and sporting his famous bicorn hat. Napoleon III was later to alter the monument to the form we see in the present day.
A related column was sold from the collection of the late Geoffrey Bennison, Christie's King Street, 29 June 1985, lot 32. Another sold in these rooms in the sale 'Quai d'Orsay, Paris: An Apartment by Jacques Grange', 19 November 2010, lot 645 (£46,850).
The column was originally surmounted by a statue of Napoleon as a Roman Emperor, with crowned laurel wreath and holding a globe in one hand, surmounted by a statue of Victory. During the Restauration, the statue was replaced by a figure of Napoleon representing the Emperor re-clothed in a raincoat and sporting his famous bicorn hat. Napoleon III was later to alter the monument to the form we see in the present day.
A related column was sold from the collection of the late Geoffrey Bennison, Christie's King Street, 29 June 1985, lot 32. Another sold in these rooms in the sale 'Quai d'Orsay, Paris: An Apartment by Jacques Grange', 19 November 2010, lot 645 (£46,850).