Overall height: 45cm (17.6in)
Patinated bronze. Standing figure of a Guardsman in the review order uniform of July 1815. Cast from a model by Sir Edgar Boehm by Elkington & Co.
A Guardsman in the review order uniform of July 1815 with the new addition of the bearskin cap. Following the defeat of Napoleon's Old Guard Grenadiers at the hands of Sir Peregrine Maitland's Guards Brigade at Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815, the Prince Regent issued an order awarding the 1st Foot Guards the distinction of adopting the bearskin cap as worn by Napoleon's Old Guard in place of the British Army's regulation pattern shako. The present figure was cast as a reduced scale version of one of the four Warterloo soldiers surrounding Boehm's equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington at Hyde Park Corner, London which was unveiled by the Prince of Wales in 1888. Each of the flanking figures was conceived as a representation of the rank and file from each of the four home nations of the British Isles that were present at the Allied victory at Waterloo. The other three are a Royal Highlander, an Inniskilling Dragoon and a Welsh Fusilier,
Sir Edgar Boehm, Bt, RA (1834-1890) was born in Vienna, the son of the Director of the Austrian Imperial Mint. He came to London 1848 to study in British Museum in Italy, Paris, and Vienna, where he won the First Imperial Prize in 1856. In 1862 he settled permanently in London and later the same year first exhibited at Royal Academy. He took British nationality in 1865, and was appointed an A.R.A. in 1878 and an R.A. in 1882. He was a Lecturer on sculpture at Royal Academy and received the membership of several foreign academies. Boehm enjoyed a constant flow of commissions for public monuments, portrait statues and busts and became Sculptor in Ordinary to Queen Victoria in 1881. His notable works include Lord Napier of Magdala in Queen's Gate, Kensington; the Prince Imperial (killed in the Zulu War of 1879-80) in St George's Chapel, Windsor; Gordon of Khartoum in St Paul's Cathedral; Thomas Carlyle on Chelsea Embankment; the free standing figures of Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales on Temple Bar Memorial, Fleet Street; and the portrait head of Queen Victoria for the 1887 coinage. Boehm's royal connections extended beyond his professional abilities as a sculptor. He was rumoured to be the lover of Princess Louise, Queen Victoria's artistic daughter. Moreover it was reported that Princess Louise 'discovered' Sir Edgar's body in his studio off Fulham Road.