Small Wooden Sculpture, Lion With Cross

Charming little sculpture in wood, in the round. Sleeping lion on a pedestal with a cross behind. 

This is the Lucerne Lion of Switzerland, or the Lucerne Lion, is a rock relief located in Lucerne, Switzerland, designed by Bertel Thorvaldsen and carved in 1820-21 by Lukas Ahorn.
It commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris.

It is one of the most famous monuments in Switzerland, visited by about 1.4 million tourists every year. In 2006, it was placed under the protection of Swiss monuments.

Mark Twain praised the sculpture of a mortally wounded lion as "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.