The group comprises three female figures wearing clinging classical dress, two with folds of material covering the backs of their heads, stand back-to-back, touching hands, bare-footed on a circular plinth. The crown of the head of each figure is pierced for the attachment of a fruit bowl or clock. The group is one of a pair, modelled by Denis-Antoine Chaudet (1763-1810). It was incorporated into an extravagant table decoration, a surtout de table, of the service Olympique. In 1807 Napoleon, who had commissioned the service and had intended it for his personal use, changed his mind and presented it to Tsar Alexander I. Although the group was produced with the service Olympique specifically in mind, there was no restriction on other versions being made concurrently for sale through the normal channels, even before the delivery of those destined for the Napoleonic service. Text adapted from French Porcelain: In the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, London, 2009