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EXECUTION OF MARIE ANTOINETTE
KüCHLER, Conrad Heinrich: France, 1793, Bronze, 48 mm
Obv: Bust of Marie Antoinette MARIA ANTON. AUSTR. FR. ET NAV. REGINA
Below: NAT. 2 NOV. 1755. NUP. 16 MAY. 1770. COR. 11 JUN. 1775
Rev: Scene of Marie Antoinette being carted to guillotine. She is seated in
a common tumbril, hands tied behind her back. National guard are at rear
while a child, hat in hand, dances in front of the cart. The Place Louis
XVI, now the Place de la Revolution, is packed with people and the guillotine
stands ready. The legend above is taken from Lucan ALTERA VENIT VICTIMA.
(Abbreviated from ‘En altera venit Victima nobilior': (Another Nobler
Victim Comes; or The Next One Becomes a Victim).
Exergue: XVI. OCT. MDCCXCIII.
Ref: Hennin 360/533; Jones (French Revolution), Figs. 5 & 18.
Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), an Austrian princess, was
never popular with the French public. (She was once to have exclaimed 'If I
was not Queen, one would say that I had an insolent air'). She was often
accused of putting Austrian interests ahead of those of her husband's
kingdom. Her unpopularity was increased by her extravagant spending, which
was often unfairly connected with the grave financial difficulties that
beset France in the 1780s. This uncertain position put her in danger in the
revolutionary period. This was not helped by her uncompromising stance to
even the more moderate revolutionaries and her attempts at collusion with
other European powers to try to suppress the insurgents. After the royal
family failed to escape in 1791, and monarchy was abolished in 1792, Louis
XVI was tried for treason and executed in January 1793. The former queen was
tried by the National Assembly and executed on 16 October 1793.
Heinrich Küchler, in partnership with the famous entrepreneur Matthew
Boulton, produced this medal as a commercial speculation. Küchler came to
work in London in March 1793, producing medals on the fate of Louis XVI, and
expanded the cycle of subjects as they occurred. The British public,
fascinated by the events in France, eagerly consumed revolutionary
memorabilia. The medal was begun in October 1793, presumably days after the
event, and issued in March 1794. (from British Museum web site)
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