He exhibited forty-three wax figures of the French Royal Circle at his residence in Paris.
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Antoine Benoist (1632–1717) was a French court painter and sculptor in wax to King Louis XIV. In European courts including that of France the making of posed wax figures became popular. Concerned for their revenue from visitors, the Abbey decided it needed a rival attraction for admirers of Nelson. Nelson's effigy was a pure tourist attraction, commissioned the year after his death in 1805, and his burial not in the Abbey but in St Paul's Cathedral after a government decision that major public figures should in future be buried there. The effigy of Charles II, open-eyed and standing, was displayed over his tomb until the early 19th century, when all the Westminster effigies were removed from the abbey itself. From the funeral of Charles II in 1680 they were no longer placed on the coffin but were still made for later display.
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The museum of Westminster Abbey in London has a collection of British royal wax effigies going back to that of Edward III of England (died 1377), as well as those of figures such as the naval hero Horatio Nelson, and Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond, who also had her parrot stuffed and displayed.
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After the funeral these were often displayed by the tomb or elsewhere in the church, and became a popular attraction for visitors, which it was often necessary to pay to view. In the Middle Ages it was the habit to carry the corpse, fully dressed, on top of the coffin at royal funerals, but this sometimes had unfortunate consequences in hot weather, and the custom of making an effigy in wax for this role grew, again wearing actual clothes so that only the head and hands needed wax models. The making of life-size wax figures wearing real clothes grew out of the funeral practices of European royalty.