The little Emperor Napoleon and his robber hordes. — L. Schlemmer, hand-coloured etching, c. 1815.

Artist: Unknown (German)
Publisher: L. Schlemmer (Nürnberg)
Title: Das Kaiserlein Napoleon, und seine Räuberhorden (The little Emperor Napoleon and his robber hordes)
Place: Nürnberg
Date: c. 1815 (after Waterloo)
Medium: Hand-coloured etching on wove paper
Dimensions: Sheet 230 × 184 mm; borderline 160 × 162 mm

Description:
Anti-Napoleonic satire. In the Emperor’s campaign pavilion, before heavy crimson draperies emblazoned with a golden duck—a parody of the imperial eagle—Napoleon, caricatured with long asinine ears, throws up his hands as his improvised “throne” of stacked crockery collapses beneath him. His blue-uniformed officers, likewise shown with asinine ears, reel and lament. At left, soldiers and camp-followers flee with plunder. The verse below condemns his renewed rule as founded on breach of faith, deceit, and bloodshed, and proclaims his ruin at Belle-Alliance/Waterloo (18 June 1815).

Inscriptions:

Under the image, lower left: bei L. Schlemmer in Nürnberg Below, centre: Das Kaiserlein Napoleon, und seine Räuberhorten [sic; recte Räuberhorden] Errichten wieder einen Thron, durch Wortbruch, Trug und Morden;
Verzweiflungsvoll ruft er nun aus: O wär’ er nicht errichtet;
Die Schlacht bei belle Alliance hat mich und euch vernichtet.

Little Emperor Napoleon and his robber hordes
again set up a throne by breach of word, deceit, and murder;
In despair, he now cries out: “O would that it had not been set up!”
The battle of Belle-Alliance has destroyed me and you.

Ref.: p. 134 in vol. 2 of  A. M. Broadley. Napoleon in caricature, 1795-1821. — London, New York: John Lane, 1911. [LIB-1177.2016]