Réplique miniature d’une guillotine, XIXe siècle

Miniature Replica of a Guillotine, 19th Century

Antoine Louis (1723-1792) ordinarily worked as a doctor. And, as a man of his time, this humanist, who contributed to the Encyclopedia of d’Alembert and Diderot, was distressed to see that judicial executions, not content with being violent, were often slow and cruel. Therefore, he developed a machine destined for a posterity he likely did not anticipate.

For, in 1789, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814) had the modern device adopted by the National Constituent Assembly. “With my machine,” he said, “I can cut off your head in the blink of an eye, and you won’t suffer. The mechanism falls like lightning, the head flies, the blood spurts, the man is no more.” Ah! The man is no more, and soon, neither will the King!

Hence the first nickname, Louison, then Louisette, when the queen was subjected to the brutal beheading. It was only later that the machine was named not after its inventor, but after the man who introduced it to the French: the guillotine had entered history.

Ours will not sever any heads, but its sharp edge should be treated with caution, for the device is in perfect condition and will spare no finger that ventures under the (considerable) weight of the beveled blade.