Height: 21.2cm (8.3in)
Patinated iron. Standing figure of the 1st Duke of Wellington wrapped in a cloak wearing the Austrian Order of the Golden Fleece at his neck. Raised on a stepped plinth base inscribed ‘A Mullar a Edinboro’ for the the British importer, and additionally marked to the underside of the base ‘Devaranne / Ac Kunstl’.
Simeon Pierre Devaranne is recorded in 1828 as a manufacturer of cast-iron wares and in 1850 as owner of a cast-iron foundry. He exhibited in Berlin in 1822, 1827 and 1842 and showed at the Great Exhibition in 1851. He was awarded the title of 'academischer Kunstler' in 1829 and is known on occasion to have added the abbreviation ‘Ac. Kunstl.’ to his mark. On his death in 1859 the firm closed down.
The significance of the present figure lies in the alliances between Great Britain and Prussia during the Napoleonic Wars in general, and more specifically during the War of the Sixth Coalition which saw Napoleon driven out of Germany after the battle of Leipzig, and French Forces expelled from the Iberian Peninsula by the Duke of Wellington; and the Seventh Coalition which ended in Allied victory at Waterloo.