Autograph Letter

Autograph letter from the French physician and politician whose name became synonymous with the ‘humane’ instrument of execution whose use he proposed to the government during the French Revolution. 1 page, signed "Guillotin." March 10, 1793 ["20 Ventôse, 4ieme an la Republique Française" French Revolutionary calendar]. Inscribed at the head "Liberté, Egalité - Section Fontaine de Grenelle," a letter penned in his capacity as Commissioner of the Fontaine de Grenelle section of Paris, charged with the clothing and armament of volunteers departing to join the Northern Army, a post he held from 1793. "I the undersigned, Member of the Commission...certify that the Citoyen Pierre d'Evesque [?] is part of the Requisition..."and adding further details, docketing also with his initials to the left margin. 6 x 8 inches [16 x 20.5 cm], nicely matted and framed with red velvet surrounding a hand-colored stipple engraved portrait and a hand-colored engraving of a Revolutionary guillotine scene. Unexamined out of the original Charles Hamilton frame, but in apparently fine condition with the writing clear and distinct throughout. 

For a man whose surname is most associated with a device used to decapitate people, Guillotin was a famously influential reformer and humanitarian, and opposed the death penalty throughout his life. During a debate on capital punishment on October 10, 1789, Guillotin, one of ten Paris deputies in the Estates-General assembly, proposed that death, if unavoidable, should come swiftly, painlessly, and advocated on behalf of an apparatus designed by the surgeon Dr. Antoine Louis. In a follow-up meeting on December 1st, Guillotin was quoted as saying: 'Now, with my machine, I cut off your head in the twinkling of an eye, and you never feel it!' His words made headlines and his lifelong affiliation with an instrument he never created was born.

The French Revolutionary calendar was a calendar created and implemented during the French Revolution, and used by the French government for about 12 years from late 1793 to 1805, and for 18 days by the Paris Commune in 1871. The revolutionary system was designed in part to remove all religious and royalist influences from the calendar, and was part of a larger attempt at decimalisation in France (which also included decimal time of day, decimalisation of currency, and metrication). The present letter is dated "Ventôse" (from French venteux, derived from Latin ventosus, "windy"), starting 19, 20, or 21 February and its full date corresponds to March 10, 1793. It was on this day that a provisional Revolutionary Tribunal was established for the trial of political offenders, eventually becoming one of the most powerful engines of the Reign of Terror. (18932)

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History & Historiography

Autograph Document

Autograph Letter

$2,500.00

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