When the Grande Armée died in the snows of Russia in 1812, the Old Guard was the last thing left standing. Of the more than half a million men who had marched east, only a frozen remnant struggled back, and most of the army had dissolved into a starving mob long before the border. But the Guard held together. In their grey-white greatcoats they kept their ranks, their discipline, and their eagles when everything around them came apart, serving as Napoleon's bodyguard and rearguard and covering the terrible crossing of the Berezina. To the end of that retreat the Old Guard was still a regiment and not a rabble — which was exactly why Napoleon had built it.

The seven-figure set is the ceremonial front of the Guard — an Eagle Bearer raising the bronze eagle and tricolor, two sergeants, two bearded sapeurs, and two drummers, all in the grey-white greatcoats and bearskins of the campaign Guard. It forms the head of a marching column in any French diorama. Fall it in ahead of the French Grenadiers of the Guard, link it to the Grenadiers of the Guard, Head of Column, and set the Emperor Napoleon riding past the eagle as it passes.

Tradition of London. 54mm, white metal, hand-painted in gloss enamel. Seven-figure set — an Eagle Bearer, two sergeants, two sapeurs, and two drummers, 1804–1815. Supplied in the Tradition Classic Red Box. Allow 2–3 weeks delivery.