Tussaud

Tussaud, MADAME, the foundress of the well-known exhibition of wax-work in London, was born (Marie Grosholtz) at Berne in 1760, and learned the art of modelling in wax in Paris. For a time she was engaged in giving lessons in modelling to Elizabeth, sister of Louis XVI., and in this way became acquainted with the leading personages at court. Imprisoned for three months during the Revolution, in 1802 she established herself in London, where she died 16th April 1850. The collection of upwards of 300 portrait figures (that of Voltaire and others still on view modelled by Madame Tussaud herself from life), with the 'Chamber of Horrors,' devoted to figures of murderers, instruments of torture, the guillotine of the Revolution, &c., is one of the sights of London. See the Life by Hayley (1878).