Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette is captured in this fascinating miniature figurine.  Vividly hand painted details make this little piece stand out in any collection.

Lafayette was a French aristocrat and military officer who commanded American troops in the American Revolutionary War. In France he was a commissioned officer by age 13, and in America he was made a major general at age 19. He became a member of Washington’s staff; Washington told Lafayette that he held him in confidence as a “friend and father.” Wounded during the Battle of Brandywine, Lafayette still managed to organize an orderly retreat. In 1781, troops under his command in Virginia blocked forces led by Cornwallis until other American and French forces could position themselves for the decisive siege of Yorktown. More than any other foreign dignitary, Marquis de Lafayette, advocated an independent United States. The French aristocrat and military officer was a close friend of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Through his actions and achievements he became a beloved figure in both America and France.

Considered not only a military and revolutionary hero, but a man of great personal integrity, with a deep sense of duty, honor, and patriotism, George Washington was unanimously elected president by the Electoral College in 1789. He oversaw the creation of a well-financed, robust national government while unifying rival factions within the country.