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Lot Essay
This tea service was commissioned to honor the heroic resistance of Gerona during the Peninsular War (1808-14), when Napoleon's troops laid siege to the crucial city three times. The brave citizens, symbolized here by the woman with dagger held to her breast, fought alongside the vastly outnumbered Spanish soldiers; eventually more than 9,000 Spanish and 20,000 French died. See R Diaz, op cit, pp 378-380.