A Swiss Carved Wood Plaque of the Lion of Lucerne

A finely carved late nineteenth-century Swiss relief plaque in dense timber, depicting the dying Lion of Lucerne after Bertel Thorvaldsen’s celebrated monument. Carved from a single block, the composition replicates the cliff-face niche in Lucerne, complete with jagged rock overhangs and the recumbent beast sheltering the Bourbon shield and Swiss cross under his paw.

Above the grotto, the Latin dedication 'HELVETIORUM FIDEI AC VIRTUTI' ('To the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss') is crisply cut into the upper margin, while the date of the storming of the Tuileries, 'MDCCXCII' (1792), is carved below.

Produced almost certainly in the Bernese Oberland—most likely Brienz—as a high-calibre Grand Tour souvenir, such plaques were keenly acquired by Victorian travellers. The carving remains sharp, with good definition across the lion's mane and musculature, and the timber retains an attractive, rich original patina throughout.