A solid walnut hand carving of the "Lion of Lucerne". This is an exquisite and incredibly beautifully captured execution of a very famous sculpture carved into the side of a sandstone quarry, Wesemlin, near Lucerne, Switzerland. Its origins are tragic, and marks perhaps the darkest day in Swiss history.

From as early on as the seventeenth century a regiment of Swiss Guards had served as part of the Royal Household of France. On 6 October 1789, King Louis XVI had been forced to move with his family from the Palace of Versailles to the Tuileries Palace, Paris. In June 1791 he attempted to flee to Montmédy near the frontier, where troops under royalist officers were concentrated. On the 10th of August1792 Insurrection, revolutionaries stormed the palace. Fighting broke out spontaneously after the Royal Family had been escorted from the Tuileries to take refuge with the Legislative Assembly. The Swiss Guards ran low on ammunition and were overwhelmed by superior numbers. A surviving note written by the King half an hour after firing had commenced, ordered the Swiss to retire and return to their barracks.Delivered in the middle of the fighting, this was only acted on after their position had become untenable.

Around seven hundred and sixty of the Swiss Guards defending the Tuileries were killed during the fighting, or massacred after surrender.An estimated two hundred more died in prison of their wounds or were killed during the "September Massacres"that followed.Apart from about a hundred Swiss who escaped from the Tuileries, the only other survivors of the regiment were a three hundred strong detachment which, with the King's authorisation, had been sent to Normandy to escort grain convoys a few days before August 10.

The Swiss officers were mostly amongst those massacred, although Major K. Josef von Bachmann, in command at the Tuileries, was formally tried and guillotined in September, still wearing his red uniform of the Guard. Two surviving Swiss officers went on to achieve senior rank under Napoleon.

There was also one other individual;Karl Pfyffer von Altishofen. An officer of the Guards who had been fortunate to be granted leave in Lucerne at that time of the fight. He began collecting money in 1818 to construct a monument for his fallen brothers. The monument was funded by a number of European Royal houses, with the responsibility for the design was given to Danish sculptor; Bertel Thorvaldsen. It was hewn in 1820-1 by stonemason Lukas Ahorn.

Above the monument is an inscribed dedication; "Helvetiorum Fidei ac Virtuti"("To the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss"), which can be seen here , carved into the underneath on the base. The original monument measures ten meters in length and six meters in height. The dying lion is portrayed impaled by a spear, covering a shield bearing the fleur de lis of the French monarchy; beside him is another shield bearing the coat of arms of Switzerland. The inscription below the sculpture lists the names of the officers and gives the approximate numbers of soldiers who died (DCCLX=760), and survived (CCCL=350).

It is such a moving sculpture it inspired mark Twain to comment; "The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff — for he is carved from the living rock of the cliff. His size is colossal, his attitude is noble. His head is bowed, the broken spear is sticking in his shoulder, his protecting paw rests upon the lilies of France. Vines hang down the cliff and wave in the wind, and a clear stream trickles from above and empties into a pond at the base, and in the smooth surface of the pond the lion is mirrored, among the water-lilies.

Around about are green trees and grass. The place is a sheltered, reposeful woodland nook, remote from noise and stir and confusion — and all this is fitting, for lions do die in such places, and not on granite pedestals in public squares fenced with fancy iron railings. The Lion of Lucerne would be impressive anywhere, but nowhere so impressive as where he is." This was written in his work; "A Tramp Abroad", 1880.

A spectacular reproduction of a moving memorial. The piece has such presence, and scale, and is a phenomenal example of hand carving in its own right. The condition is superb throughout. It is a sculpture that has drawn many to reproduce it. To this level, and scale it is on its own. Made in Europe, circa  1890.