Lot n° 108
Estimation :
2000 - 3000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 3 220EUR
PRÉCIEUSE RELIQUE DU ROI LOUIS XVI
Preserved in a beautiful carved wooden frame, surmounted by the great arms of France under a royal crown on a background of flags, containing under a curved glass a lock of hair of King Louis XVI, as indicated by the printed text preserved in the lower part of the frame, signed by Pierre Rey, on June 27, 1818 in Toulouse: "Hair of S. M. Louis XVI, King of France. Desiring that my children keep the veneration that I have for a part of the hair of King Louis XVI, that I consider as a precious relic, I believe appropriate to explain them how these hairs came to me. The named François Pérou, native of Toulouse, Saint-Cyprien district, enlisted and was made drummer in one of the battalions which were formed in 1792, in the department of Haute-Garonne. This battalion went to Paris. Peru found himself among the drummers who surrounded the scaffold of the unfortunate Louis XVI, when Santerre ordered the roll that covered his voice, at the moment when he addressed the people. All historical documents agree that the executioners did not approach the King in his prison and that his hair was cut on the scaffold. The executioner threw them away and they fell near the said Peru, who immediately covered them with his foot and picked them up after the roll, during the hubbub that followed the execution. He remembered that his mother was one of those who were not of the party of the Revolution. Thinking, with good reason, that he could not make his mother a more pleasant present, Peru kept the hair in his bag. Some time later, his battalion passing through Toulouse on its way to Spain, he gave his mother the precious relic, which this brave woman distributed to those of her closest friends whom she knew to share the royalist opinions. On the reverse side of the frame appears an old engraving representing the farewell of King Louis XVI to his family surmounted by a medallion decorated with the profiles of King Louis XVI, his wife Queen Marie-Antoinette and the young Dauphin of France, future Louis XVII. Above this engraving is a compartment containing two fragments of an autograph letter bearing the following handwritten indications: "the executioner [...] the hair was [...] at the foot of the [...] was day [...] nor Lefebvre [...] Propagator of [...] September...". Hair bound by the House Henri Laffez, Artist Draftsman & Hair Braider, in Lille.
Small accidents, but good general condition.
H.: 28 cm - L.: 17 cm.
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