Sir Richard Wallace, who gave his name to the collection of art, armour and antique furniture on public display at Manchester Square, London, was a Francophile philanthropist who donated fifty drinking fountains to the city of Paris.
 
The drinking fountains were designed by Charles Auguste Lebourg after a sketch by Wallace and were made, commencing in 1872, by the famed Val d'Osne foundries in Haute Marne.
 
Many aqueducts were destroyed in the siege of Paris in 1870-71 forcing up the price of water much of which was drawn from the not very pure river Seine which also acted as a sewer. As in London prior to Bazalgette, it was safer to drink beer brought in from rural breweries and almost as cheap as water. This in turn imposed a moral duty to keep the populace from falling into alcoholism. Today these fountains are still the only sources of free water for the homeless.
 
Sir Richard Wallace, who designed the fountains to be beautiful as well as useful, required them to meet several guidelines:
 
Height: They had to be tall enough to be seen from afar but not so tall as to destroy the harmony of the surrounding landscape.
Form: Both practical to use and pleasing to the eye.
Price: Affordable enough to allow the installation of dozens.
Materials: Resistant to the elements, easy to shape, and simple to maintain.
The locations, as well as the colour (dark green to blend in with parks and tree-lined avenues), were decided upon by the city government.
 
Wallace paid most of the costs. The city of Paris allocated 1,000 francs for the large model and 450 francs for the wall-mounted model.
 
Wallace created two different models, which were followed by two additional models, so, in all, there were four types of Wallace fountains. The models were large, wall-mounted, small and belvedere (also called colonnade).
 
The large models were 2.71 high, on a Hauteville foundation stone on which stands a cruciform base supporting a four-sided pedestal below four outward-facing caryatids supporting a dome, all decorated with dolphins. Water trickles from the dome into a basin and, originally, with two tin-plate iron drinking cups were attached by chain. The cups were removed in 1952 for Hygiene reasons by the Council of Public Hygiene of the old Department of the Seine.
 
Parisian dealer Marc Maison has acquired one of these historic large Wallace fountains which is currently listed for sale on his website.