The working model of a guillotine made from bone by prisoner awaiting execution

A working model of a guillotine made by a  Napoleonic prisoner, awaiting his death, is expected to fetch up to £8,000 at auction when it goes on sale early next month.

The 200-year-old replica was crafted by an inmate using scrap animal bone, salvaged from waste bins.

The 20 inch-tall model was unearthed by an expert doing a routine valuation in a house near Dorchester, Dorset.

Amy Brenan, from Duke’s auction house in Dorchester, said the family who owned the model guillotine had no idea what it was.

She said: ‘With little contact outside the prisoner of war camps, prisoners were forced to improvise.

‘Cheap materials like straw and scrap wood were easy to find and prisoners were able to use skills learnt in their trades outside the camp to produce high quality objects such as woven straw-work boxes.

The prototype shows a platform lined with soldiers and a set of steps up the the guillotine itself.

Other soldiers surround the blade and a decapitated body lies beneath it.

The macabre model is intricately carved and the blade goes up and down and even the soldiers who are holding swords have moving arms.

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