Pinned to this officer's chest is the small white cross of the Légion d'honneur, and it carried a revolutionary idea. Napoleon founded the order in 1802 to reward merit — courage, service, ability — and made it open to any man regardless of birth, from a marshal to a private soldier. In the royal armies that came before, a commission was a thing of breeding and money, reserved for the nobility; in Napoleon's, a guardsman who fought well could be commissioned from the ranks and decorated beside generals. "Every soldier carries a marshal's baton in his knapsack," the saying went. Many of the Guard's own officers had begun as private men and risen on nothing but proven valor.

The figure shows the officer in full dress, sword drawn — bearskin with red plume, dark blue coat with the gold epaulettes of rank, white waistcoat and trousers, tall boots and a red sash — the Légion d'honneur at his breast. He is posed to command, and sits at the center of almost any Guard vignette. Put him at the head of the color party with the French Imperial Guard Eagle, set him behind a firing line anchored by a French Imperial Guard 1st Rank Kneeling, or have him giving the word to a French Imperial Guard Standing Make Ready as the volley comes up.

W. Britain model 36160. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.