For all their fearsome reputation, the Old Guard often did not fight at all — and one of the most argued-over moments of the wars turned on exactly that. At Borodino on 7 September 1812, the bloodiest single day of the Napoleonic Wars, the Russian army was reeling, and Napoleon's marshals begged him to throw in the Imperial Guard and finish them. He refused. So far from home, he would not risk his last reserve — "eight hundred leagues from Paris," as he put it — and the battered Russians were allowed to retreat in good order rather than be destroyed. Historians have argued ever since whether the Guard, committed that afternoon, might have won the campaign and changed everything that followed.

The eight-figure set is the Guard in action — an officer and seven grenadiers firing, loading, and lunging with the bayonet, in bearskins, dark blue coats with red epaulettes and a mix of white and campaign trousers. It forms the firing line of a Guard diorama. Bring up the colours and command with the French Imperial Guard Grenadiers eagle party, reinforce the line with the French Grenadiers of the Guard, and post the Emperor Napoleon behind them — the reserve he so rarely risked.

Tradition of London model 748. 54mm, white metal, hand-painted in gloss enamel. Eight-figure set — an officer and seven grenadiers, 1804–1815. Supplied in the Tradition Classic Red Box. Allow 2–3 weeks delivery.