12 figures in 6 poses with 6 horses.

While Cossacks had long used the lance with great skill, the Russian army saw its first genuine lancer regiments when two were converted in 1803. More followed over the next dozen years, following the general European trend to have more of these horsemen, which could be so effective against infantry, particularly if disordered. In Russia’s case there was a good supply of the traditional specialists in this mode of fighting to fill the ranks – Poles and Lithuanians. 

Perhaps the first thing to grab the attention when this box from Mars is opened is how few lances there are. As can be seen from our photographs there are precisely two lances, both for one pose which is holding the lance near the base and out to the side while still facing forward. It’s a pretty awful pose, not least because this is not how the lance was held or used, although it also just looks completely unnatural. The lance is guided by a groove along the right arm, which forces it to be held in this odd position. A similar device was used in the comparable Strelets set, but their pose was infinitely better than this. So, with only one lancer pose, and a largely useless one at that, there remain four poses with sabres and one using a carbine. While it is certainly true that not all lancers actually carried a lance, and once the lance was lost or broken the sabre was the natural alternative weapon, we still find it incomprehensible that so many poses are using a sabre. The first figure in the second row has a cupped hand into which one of the illustrated separate items can be placed, and both the guidon and the sabre make sense here, although the carbine seems much less natural. Only flankers carried carbines by 1812, which does justify the last pose in this set. However we were very unimpressed with the poses as a whole.