Everyone knows Napoleon was short — except he wasn't. The legend of the tiny tyrant comes from a measurement muddle and a propaganda war. At his death he was recorded as five feet two — but in French inches, which were longer than English ones; converted properly, that is about five feet six or seven, average or a shade above for a Frenchman of his day. British caricaturists did the rest, drawing him as a ranting dwarf until the image stuck. It did not help that he surrounded himself with the hand-picked giants of the Guard, who made any man beside them look small. His soldiers' name for him, "le petit caporal," was a term of affection, not a ruler.

The figure shows the Emperor mounted on the grey Marengo in his signature grey redingote and black bicorne, the horse standing square on a red-and-gold Guard shabraque. As the anchor of a French diorama, he draws the rest of the army to him. Place him before the marching French Grenadiers of the Guard, station him beside the command group of Napoleon's Headquarters, or set him at the moment of reward in Napoleon Presenting the Légion d'Honneur.

Tradition of London. 54mm, white metal, hand-painted in gloss enamel. Single mounted figure on a painted base. Supplied in the Tradition Classic Red Box. Allow 2–3 weeks delivery.