This is an unusually ambitious example of prisoner-of-war art, but nevertheless demonstrates how enterprising they were prepared to be in order to make money to ease their predicament. Probably working soon after the battle, its creator (or creators) would have needed to have established a substantial amount of capital to afford such a large mirror plate and the ivory needed for the main characters. When peace finally came in 1815, there are reports of some prisoners returning to France very rich men having amassed fortunes through cottage industries, the principal product being exquisitely made ship models.