The Romance of Madame Tussaud'sTussaud, John Theodore
History
The Romance of Madame Tussaud's
Tussaud, John Theodore
Madame Tussaud and Sons' Exhibition; Tussaud, Marie, 1761-1850; Waxworks
Some were delivered at Hall’s Riding School (now a motor garage) in
Albany Street, opposite Holy Trinity Church and close to Great Portland
Street Station, and Mr. Francis Tussaud (grandfather of the writer)
modelled him in one of the rooms of that place. He was constantly
interrupted during the sittings by people of all classes and creeds
coming into take the pledge. Most of them insisted upon kneeling to
receive Father Mathew’s blessing. They were probably actuated by respect
for him, and also by the hope that the recollection of his blessing might
strengthen their teetotal vows.
At the close of the sittings Father Mathew detached from his breast his
temperance medal, which was attached to a ribbon round his neck, and
handed it to the artist that it might be placed upon his model.
Father Mathew bore so striking a resemblance in face and figure to
Napoleon I that the two were once oddly mistaken for each other by our
own servants.
We had occasion to renovate the portraits of the soldier and the
preacher. To do so it was necessary that the heads of both should be
detached. The assistant who was responsible for taking the figures to
pieces in this way mistook the one head for the other. The error was
fortunately soon detected by Mr. Francis Tussaud, who had modelled both
the heads, and he soon had the mistake rectified.
There are persons still living who remember Father Mathew. An old and
respected neighbour, Francis Draper by name, is one of the youngest men
of eighty-seven one could possibly meet. Although born in 1832, he still
possesses a wonderfully clear memory.
In 1842, when Father Mathew paid his visit to London, Mr. Draper--then
a boy of ten years--was introduced to him at the Riding School. In an
anteroom upstairs, to which Father Mathew retired between the times
when he administered the pledge, he saw an artist modelling his face
in clay, which he was told was for Madame Tussaud’s Exhibition. He had
an impression at the time that the artist was Francis, a son of Madame
Tussaud, and his surmise was accurate, for it was Mr. Francis Tussaud who
was executing the model.
For many years afterwards he saw “The Noble Priest of Cork” standing in a
group in Madame Tussaud’s, with his medal suspended round his neck, and,
he says, it was the best likeness of anyone in the rooms.
The assassination of Alexander II of Russia in March, 1881, recalls a
quaint story of Voltaire’s chair, which stands in a corner of one of the
Napoleon Rooms, not far removed from a collection of heads of leaders of
the French Revolution.
[Illustration: VOLTAIRE’S CHAIR]
This chair is one of our most treasured relics. It was made to Voltaire’s
own design, and is unlike any other chair we have ever seen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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