Rare Antique Hand Carved Wooden Lion of Lucerne --C068

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Rare Antique Hand Carved Wooden Lion of Lucerne --C068:
$99.00

This item is a rare antique hand caved wooden lion of Lucenrne. It measures approximately4-1/8\"long, 1-3/4\" wide and 2-1/8\" tall.the weight is 3.2 class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal; -ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;\">The LionMonument (German: Löwendenkmal), or the Lion of Lucerne, is asculpture in Lucerne,Switzerland,designed by Bertel Thorvaldsen and hewn in 1820–21 by LukasAhorn. It commemoratesthe Swiss Guardswho were massacred in 1792 during the FrenchRevolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris, France. Mark Twainpraised the sculpture of a mortally-wounded lion as \"the mostmournful and moving piece of stone in the

From the early17th century, a regimentof Swiss mercenarieshad served as part of the Royal Household of France. On 6 October 1789,King Louis XVI had been forced to move with hisfamily from the Palace of Versailles to the TuileriesPalace in Paris. In June 1791 he tried to flee abroad. In the 1792 10th of August Insurrection,revolutionaries stormed the palace. Fighting broke out spontaneously after theRoyal Family had been escorted from the Tuileries to take refuge with the Legislative Assembly. The Swiss Guardsran low on ammunition and were overwhelmed by superior numbers. A note writtenby the King has survived, ordering the Swiss to retire and return to theirbarracks, but this was only acted on after their position had become untenable.

Of the SwissGuards defending the Tuileries, more than six hundred were killed during thefighting or massacred after surrender. An estimated two hundred more died inprison of their wounds or were killed during the September Massacres that followed. Apart fromabout a hundred Swiss who escaped from the Tuileries, the only survivors of theregiment were a 300 strong detachment which had been sent to Normandy a fewdays before August 10. The Swiss officers were mostly amongst those massacred,although Major Karl Josef von Bachmann — in command atthe Tuileries —was formally tried and guillotinedin September, still wearing his red uniform coat. Two surviving Swiss officersachieved senior rank under Napoleon.

The initiativeto create the monument was taken by Karl Pfyffer von Altishofen, an officer ofthe Guards who had been on leave in Lucerne at that time of the fight.He began collecting money in 1818. The monument was designed by Danishsculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, and finally hewn in 1820–21by Lukas Ahorn, in a former sandstone quarry near Lucerne. Carved into the cliff face, the monumentmeasures a staggering ten meters in length and six meters in height.

The monument isdedicated Helvetiorum Fidei ac Virtuti (\"To the loyalty and braveryof the Swiss\"). The dying lion is portrayed impaled by a spear, covering a shield bearing the fleur-de-lisof the French monarchy; beside him is another shieldbearing the coat of arms of Switzerland. Theinscription below the sculpture lists the names of the officers and gives theapproximate numbers of soldiers who died (DCCLX=760), and survived(CCCL=350).[2]

The monument isdescribed by Thomas Carlyle in The French Revolution: A History.[3] The pose ofthe lion was copied in 1894 by Thomas M. Brady (1849–1907)[4] for his Lionof Atlanta in the Oakland Cemetery in