Rare French 19th Century Large Bronze of Vendôme Column, Paris – Napoleon Bonaparte in “Redingote” & Hat – 31 inches Tall – circa 1830’s.

An impressive, large bronze replica of the Vendôme Column monument in Paris, France.  The original Column stands in Place Vendôme square in Paris and was erected in 1811 during Napoleon Bonaparte’s rule after the French revolution.  This model showed Napoleon dressed as a Roman Emperor which was later melted and replaced with Napoleon in his ‘redingote’ coat and trademark hat in the 1830’s during Louis Philippe’s reign.  The model of Napoleon was once again replaced in 1851 with the Roman Emperor Napoleon.  In 1871 the Column was toppled by Parisian citizens and it was rebuilt with the Roman Emperor Napoleon statue in 1875.

This model would date somewhere between 1831 and 1851 but most likely in the 1830’s.

Measures:  31 inches tall x 5 1/2 inches square at base.

Place Vendôme is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. Gondoin together with Jean-Baptiste Lepère (1761-1844), built the Vendôme Column (1806-1811), Paris, with its spiral reliefs on bronze plaques after cartoons by Pierre Nolasque Bergeret. Napoleon commissioned the original column, modelled after Trajan’s Column, to celebrate the victory of Austerlitz; its veneer of 425 spiraling bas-relief bronze plates were made out of cannon taken from the combined armies of Europe, (according to his propaganda). The plates were executed by a team of sculptors including Bosio and Rude. The column was topped with a statue of Napoleon, destroyed, and then later replaced. The entire column was pulled down in 1871 and then restored and re-erected 1873.
(from Wikipedia).

also:

With the passing years, the popularity of the emperor (who had died in exile on the island of St Helena on the 5th May 1821) grew and grew during the July Monarchy (1830-1848). Anxious to link himself with the Bonapartists, in 1831 the new king Louis-Philippe decided to install a new statue of Napoleon. The sculptor Charles-Emile Seurre chose a popular image of the emperor for the statue: dressed in his famous ‘redingote’ coat (the French word ‘redingote’ is a corruption of the English ‘riding coat’) and his trademark hat, his right hand tucked into his waistcoat and with the star of the Légion d’honneur on his chest, this is Napoleon represented as the ‘little corporal’; the sort of leader who would pull the ears of his soldiers as a compliment to their bravery.
(from Napoleon.org)