At the beginning of September 1807 Copenhagen came under a heavy attack from the British navy. The Danish capital was left in ruins, buildings were levelled with the ground, and thousands of people were killed. Among them the master saddler with the the Royal Stables. This opened up for the 28-year-old Wilhelm Ludvig Dahlman, who was acknowledged to be a both skillful and dynamic saddler, and who had been deeply fascinated by the saddlers’ remarkable craft all of his life. His interest in saddlery had grown before the defeat and he had developed his special talent for the craft in his employment as a saddler in the Royal Horse Guards. On the 14. of September, only nine days after the bombardment of Copenhagen, Wilhelm’s dream came true. He was asked to take over the vacant post in the Royal Stables, and at the same time he founded his own saddlery. The Dahlman Company had seen the light of day. Wilhelm and his newly created company moved into the workshop in the Saddlers Court behind Christianborg Riding Ground which became Dahlman’s home for the next 99 years.