This splendid sculpture is the bust of a Roman soldier and is composed of three different parts, with the head made of agate, while the bust and the helmet have been carved from rock crystal. The sculpture is embellished with engravings depicting details of the armour. The base is carved in the form of a column.

This piece is likely to have been manufactured in France in the early 19th century and is a fine example of the so called "Empire Style", an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. The Empire style originated in and takes its name from the rule of the Emperor Napoleon I in the First French Empire, when it was intended to idealise Napoleon's leadership and the French state. The Empire style "turned to the florid opulence of Imperial Rome".