M is for MDM

I have to confess I have a very small sample of these, and most of those I do have are damaged, but these are very sought after, and tend toward Christie's rather than SAS, or BMSS auctions rather than dealers tables, so don't come up often, and fetch serious money when they do!

The two main packaging types, foot figures were sold singly or in fours, while the mounted examples were sold on the same base as the quadruple-packed foot figures. Produced by Rene Daniel, they were popular with Hotels and Airports, where they would be found in display cases in the lobbies etc...Garratt reports a fine display at Orly, I wonder if it's still there?

The base mark from a mounted figure, the foot figures were unmarked. There is a website devoted to MDM here; 1er.Empire but I can't tell if it's an old one, someones lost interest in, or a brand new one that's still being built as it's one of those annoying one's that tells you it was last updated when you clicked on it, rather than when the owner last did something to it!

A few more figures, the one on the left has - I think - been re-based to match someones wider collection. Like a lot of French companies, MDM only produced figures of the 1st Empire; 'Napoleonic' French Units and their allies, I've never understood this, everyone else manages to produce allies, enemies and even neutrals (except Crescent - who had a problem with the Germans), but the French tend to stick with their own, how can a kid have a battle when every one's on the same side...Oh...La Revolution; take 2!