Biscuit Porcelain Figure of Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban
£9,500
A finely modelled biscuit porcelain figure of Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, Marshal of France and military engineer (1633-1707), from the series “Illustrious Men of France”. Standing wearing full wig, breastplate, long coat with sash, sword, breeches and short boots, a scroll in his right hand, his left hand unrolling a plan of a military fortification revealing a model of the same resting on a canon, on a square base inscribed VAUBAN
First modelled by Bridan in 1783
‘Grands Hommes de la France‘ [Great Men of France] which was ordered by the comte d’Angiviller, first in marble and then in Sèvres biscuit porcelain.
Cf. Bourgeois, op. cit., fig. 605
Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707) was Maréchal de France and military engineer to Louis XIV. As such he was responsible for the design of the fortifications of important northern French towns in the wars against the Dutch and other campaigns
Musée du Louvre purchased a version of the same figure (Illustrated) at Christies, London in 1996 (the Louvre figure is damaged and missing the tip of the scroll and index finger of the right hand)
