This is a set of 1/5th scale French siege mortars from the 19th century. They are in the 1,000-piece collection of artillery models at the Musée de l’Armée – Invalides in Paris.

Models like this were made for a number of reasons; as royal gifts, as design and development models for armourers and soldiers, and as ‘concept’ pieces that would never see production.

These siege mortars – a Model 1838 15cm mortar, and three Model 1839 mortars of 22cm, 27cm, & 32cm bores – were manufactured (in 1:1!) under the Gribeauval system, named after its inventor, Lieutenant General Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, which standardised artillery sizes, thus rationalising the supply of ammunition and making the army much more efficient.

The museum’s collection of artillery models is supplemented by its enormous collection of tin, wood and paper toy soldiers which are displayed in the same gallery, and a collection of ‘relief maps’ (scale 3D models) of French fortified towns, ports and castles created from 1668 as strategic planning aids for the military, now kept in a nearby gallery in the Hôtel National des Invalides.

See Review Musée de l’Armée – Invalides