1st December: Madam Tussaud

Madam Tussaud, famous for her waxworks, was born on 1 December 1761. here are 10 things you may not know about her:

1. Marie Tussaud learned wax modelling from her mother's employer, Philippe Curtius, a doctor who made wax models to illustrate anatomy and later branched out into portraits. The oldest waxwork still on display is Curtius's portrait of Louis XV's last mistress, Madame du Barry.
2. Marie's first figure was made in 1777, a portrait of Voltaire.
3. Marie claimed in her memoirs that she was on good terms with the French royal family and even worked for them, teaching votive making to Louis XVI's sister.
4. She was arrested during the Reign of Terror and was almost executed herself. Her head had been shaved ready for the guillotine, but thanks to her connection with Philippe Curtius, she got a last minute reprieve.
5. The revolutionaries saw she had a skill they could use and employed her to make death masks of people who had been executed, which could then be paraded through the streets of Paris. Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Marat, and Robespierre were among them.
6. Her first exhibition in London was not a huge success. It was a joint one, alongside a magic lantern pioneer called Paul Philidor, at London's Lyceum Theatre. Philidor robbed her of half her profits.
7. The Napoleonic wars stopped her from going home to France, so she went on tour with her collection throughout Great Britain and Ireland.
8. The first permanent exhibition in Baker Street opened in 1835.
9. Some of the waxworks Marie Tussaud made still exist, including a self portrait she made in 1842, which is on display at the entrance to her museum.
10. There is a memorial tablet to Madame Marie Tussaud on the right side of the nave of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Cadogan Street, London.