Auction Date:2010 Apr 14 @ 10:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Manuscript DS, in French, signed “A. Q. Fouquier,” four pages on two adjoining sheets, 7.5 x 10, July 25, 1794. Document on Tribunal Revolutionnaire letterhead ordering the arrest of 102 persons, all listed in the document, and for them to be detained at the Conciergerie prison. Document begins, “The guard of the said house of lawfulness will admit and guard the named,” listing the 102 people, and concluding “The Conciergerie guard will give to the Bailiff holder of the present subordinate clause whom in doing so handed over Done in the Public Prosecutor’s cabinet.” In very good condition, with scattered toning and soiling, small tear to two small holes at bottom edge of both pages, vertical fold through first initial, some light spotting, and scattered edge wear. The red wax seal is cracked, but mostly intact.
Blood-letting and head-rolling was rampant at the time Fouquier-Tinville issued this decree during the peak of the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution. Just a month earlier, the Robespierre-led government had implemented the Law of 22 Prairial, which forbade prisoners from using counsel for their defense. It also suppressed the use of witnesses and, brutally, made death the only penalty. Thus, so-called conspirators and counter-revolutionaries were rounded up and brought to trial...and essentially murdered. The numbers are staggering—prior to the law, 1,200 people were sententced to death in a 13-month period. For the 49 days between passage of the end of Maximilien Robespierre’s reign, 1,376 people—many of whom were innocent—were condemned. Fouquier-Tinville took full advantage of the Law of 22 Prairial, essentially passing judgment on hundreds of people a day, including the 102 souls here reference—33 of whom are listed as wife, widow, or daughter and were surely sent to the guillotine. Two days after signing this order, a plot put a sudden end to the rule of Robespierre. In the end, Fouquier-Tinville’s attempt to redeem himself by turning against Robespierre failed, and six days after signing this document, was arrested and eventually executed in May 1795...suffering the same fate as the forgotten victims on this list. A rare and tragic example from the last days of the Reign of Terror. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
Auction Location:
5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
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