Waterloo Vase

The Waterloo Vase is a great urn, 15ft (5m) high and weighing 20 tons, fashioned from a single piece of Carrara marble. Since 1906, it has been used as a garden ornament in the garden of Buckingham Palace, London.

Emperor Napoleon I of France, passing through Tuscany on his journey to the Russian front, was shown a single massive block of marble; he asked for it to be preserved. It is thought that Napoleon may have ordered it to be roughly hewn into the present urn shape, leaving the panels undecorated in readiness to commemorate his expected victories.

Following the French defeat in the Napoleonic Wars, the vase was presented unfinished to the Prince Regent in 1815 by Ferdinand, Grand Duke of Tuscany, via the British ambassador, Lord Burghersh. The Prince Regent, soon to become George IV, had the vase completed by the sculptor Richard Westmacott with the intention that it be the focal point of the new Waterloo chamber at Windsor Castle, commemorating the Battle of Waterloo, one of numerous triumphal commissions for Westmacott after Waterloo.

Inspired by Ancient Roman models, such as the Borghese Vase and the Medici Vase, the Waterloo Vase was carved with bas-reliefs of George III (long removed from public view) on his throne, Napoleon unhorsed, and various allegorical figures. Two winged busts of angels leap incongruously from the sides of the vase, resembling more the figureheads of an ancient ship than the handles of an elegant marble vase.

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