Standing sentinel up the grand staircase of Two Temple Place are characters from Alexandre Dumas’s Les Trois Mousquetaires. Each figure’s costume and pose have been carefully considered and visitors delight in recognising the characters by their dress or demeanour alone.
Image credit: twobytwo event photography
First one meets d’Artagnan, the central character of the novel, standing in thoughtful pose. Opposite is Madame Bonacieux enveloped in her cloak as she was when the young man discovered her on a secret assignation. On the first landing quiet Aramis is engrossed in a book. He is paired with Milady, the beautiful adventuress who loved and left Athos sometime before the novel opens.
Towards the back of the landing Bazin, Aramis’s valet studies his theology books, while incongruously brushing his master’s clothes. On the second landing the aristocratic Athos appears wearing the uniform of a royal musketeer. His melancholy demeanour and austere manner disguise a secret history with the treacherous Milady which is revealed as the book unfolds. Completing the group in a commanding position at the top of the stairs is Porthos, the burly and loud extrovert of the group in a swaggering stance with a musket across his shoulder.
Image credit: twobytwo event photography
All these figures are remarkable works of art, but did you know, the carver, Thomas Nicholls, was so fond of the figures that he kept them at his studio and later, when he became ill, in his own bedroom. Reputedly they were not delivered to the estate office until after his death in March 1896.