Napoleon's guns were the best in Europe before he ever fired one, thanks to a reformer named Gribeauval. In the decades before the Revolution, Jean-Baptiste de Gribeauval rebuilt the French artillery from the ground up: standardized calibers — four-, eight-, and twelve-pounders — on lighter, stronger carriages, with interchangeable parts and prepacked ammunition that made the guns quicker to move and serve than any rival's. It was a system waiting for a master, and it found one in a young artillery officer named Bonaparte. He massed these guns where others spread them thin, and grew so fond of his heavy twelve-pounders that he called them his "belles filles" — his beautiful daughters. The foot artillery served them in the thick of every great battle.

The seven-figure set is a foot battery in action — an officer directing the piece and five gunners working it, one ramming, one carrying a round, another with the handspike, the bronze gun on its grey carriage and an ammunition chest beside. They wear the dark blue and red of the artillery, with red-plumed shakos. Mass it into a grand-battery diorama: range it beside the French Horse Artillery, add the French Artillery of the Guard, and complete the line with the French Foot Artillery of the Imperial Guard.

Tradition of London model N4A. 54mm, white metal, hand-painted in gloss enamel. Seven-figure set — an officer and five gunners with a field gun and ammunition chest. Supplied in the Tradition Classic Red Box. Allow 2–3 weeks delivery.