I. Trajan’s Column in Gilded Bronze

I. Trajan’s Column in Gilded Bronze

33”h., c 1860, gilded bonze, Belgian black marble base

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An unexpected addition to the mid-19th century oeuvre of Parisian foundry Freres LeBlanc, this impressive, highly detailed model of Rome’s Trajan’s Column is turned out in gilded bronze. Souvenir models of the monument in bronze were produced by a small number of Roman foundries, including Hopfgarten and Jollage, especially in the first quarter of the 19th century. This memento, with the LeBlanc name cast to the interior and out of view, may have employed one of those earlier Roman replicas as a casting model. With Parisian mid-19th century architectural models – the Colonnes Vendome and Juillet, Luxor Obelisk, and Arc de Triomphe – no firm was more prolific. Interestingly, some details of this souvenir – the fence and Belgian marble base, for example – are characteristic of Parisian productions.

In one way, this model follows the c. 1830 English practice of producing models of monuments for sale to local stay-at-homes –it no longer being necessary to bother with expensive trips to faraway places in order to secure terrific souvenirs of those evocative destinations.