This is ridiculously amazing. I’ve never lied to you before so don’t let the long text fool you. It’s well worth the read.

NAPOLEONIC BONE MODEL GUILLOTINE

Richly carved and coloured, this model was carved by prisoners of war in the late 18th/early 19th century. It was originally designed to work - the victim loses his head when the sharp bone blade falls.

The guillotine was invented by Dr Joseph Guillotine to make execution more humane. It quickly became a symbol of the French Revolution and around 40,000 French royalists were executed. Victims were placed on a bench face down. The beheading was very quick, taking less than half a second from blade drop to the victim’s head rolling into the waiting basket.

During the Napoleonic Wars many thousands of prisoners of war (POW) of many nationalities, but particularly French and American, were held in and around Plymouth. They were held mostly on prison hulks moored on the Tamar, at Millbay Prison (now the site of Millbay Park) and, after 1809, incarcerated in the newly built Dartmoor Prison.

In addition to this model guillotine, our collections include a number of examples of POW work dating from the late 18th and early 19th century – including several ship models, gun carriages, figurines, straw work and bone boxes and other model guillotines.

Guillotine models are not unusual, but few are as elaborate as this example, which can be seen alongside a selection of our POW craftwork artefacts in our ‘Plymouth, Port and Place’ gallery.

NAPOLEONIC PRISONER OF WAR BONE AUTOMATON, early 19th century, modelled as four ladies wearing bonnets and coiffes at various pursuits and two young children “”dancing”“, 4 3/4”” high, base 1 1/2”” x 3 1/4”“”

(Source: )

An early 19th Century Napoleonic prisoner of war bone automaton of a lady

I think the next set of objects are the most interesting things I’ve posted since Napoleon’s bees which I encourage you to view:  Click Here

Carved by Napoleonic prisoners of war, unknown origins: “An extension to this tradition was the production of ships models by captured French sailors of the Napoleonic wars. The prisoners, many kept on aging hulks moored in harbours such as Portsmouth, would use pieces of bone and horn from the meat supplied to the galleys to produce finely detailed ships models using their knowledge of the designs and rigs of fighting ships of the period. With the open assistance of the guards and their officers, the models were then traded, with the prisoner receiving a small amount with which he could purchase additional materials, food and tobacco. At the end of the Napoleonic War many of the French sailors entered the well-established trade producing bone and ivory souvenirs centred in French ports such as Dieppe.”