To answer your question on how I got into this hobby... 1972, a 15-year old kid living in the suburbs of Paris innocently came across an article in the newspaper talking about the execution of two criminals, Buffet and Bontemps, in the Sante prison in Southwestern Paris, a place he was quite familiar with. Further reading revealed that these fellows had been DECAPITATED with a mysterious machine called a "guillotine" although there were no pictures. A frantic search of many other sources yielded an article in L'Express and a large front page drawing of the awesome apparatus. Not only did this kid not know, before that day, that his country was still executing people, but the idea that they were cutting their heads off in a machine was just overwhelming to him. The next year, to the horror of his parents, the kid built his first guillotine model, a crude rendition of the magical apparatus (for extra credits in his history class). After successfully repressing the urge for 30 years, I was overcome be the need to see if I could do it again, this time with proper documentation, better tools and more refined carpentry skills... and it turns out that the machine has quite a following and there is a small, largely un-met, demand for such models. So until my enthusiasm runs out I will continue building them. The macabre aspect of it has worn off over time and I only see it as a tool designed for a specific purpose. I still admire the design and feel great pleasure in achieving a better and better semblance of the real thing.
I too collect books on the guillotine, most of them in French. I also collect photographs, news articles and historical information. When I read about reactions to my website I am often surprised to find how the subject appears to others... I guess I have grown calloused to those pictures and the information surrounding them. Spending three days this summer going over every inch of a real Berger guillotine that had actually been used, felt to me like I was visiting an "old friend". Every part of it seemed so familiar although it was the first one I had ever seen in person. I am very squimish when in comes to other gory photos/information. For example I wouldn't go on a site like oggrish-dot-com because I know it would make me sick. On the other hand, guillotines seem no more gory to me than a kitchen slicer...
Not to worry I also have more "normal" hobbies like collecting handguns, re-enacting Civil War battles and restoring WW-2 armored vehicles - Just kidding - but I do have a keen interest in Civil War and WW-2 history.
You are correct that my depiction of the French Revolution's descent into madness is grossly oversimplified for the purpose of explaining how the guillotine developed and where the multitude of 1792 machines came from. There is however a sense of loss of direction and ideals when the leaders, after advocating Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood, writing a Bill of Human Rights, emancipating slaves, promoting women, casting down privileges and capricious laws, promoting freedom of speech and religion start repressing ideas, start killing off people in a mass-paranoia for exercising their newly gained liberties... going on to repress religion, start killing eachother for political gain... They use mock trials to sentence anyone to death if they deem they "might" not agree with them.
The ease of the death by guillotine may have been a contributing factor to the bloodshed of "The Terror" but one must not forget the tens of thousands that were sommarily shot, drowned or executed by cannon in the ruthless repression in the provinces. Those victims by far exceed the number of those that were beheaded. I see Robespierre as a man with noble ideas (he first proposed that the death penalty be abolished) that got caught up in the cause and completely lost sight of the purpose, bending all principles in the pursuit of power. I cannot forgive him for having Danton and his followers executed for personal political gain. I have always regarded Danton as the greater mind and the more humanitarian side of the Revolution that might have tempered it.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
Re: 1790's and guillotine
Date: 2008-10-22 02:20 pm (UTC)I too collect books on the guillotine, most of them in French. I also collect photographs, news articles and historical information. When I read about reactions to my website I am often surprised to find how the subject appears to others... I guess I have grown calloused to those pictures and the information surrounding them. Spending three days this summer going over every inch of a real Berger guillotine that had actually been used, felt to me like I was visiting an "old friend". Every part of it seemed so familiar although it was the first one I had ever seen in person. I am very squimish when in comes to other gory photos/information. For example I wouldn't go on a site like oggrish-dot-com because I know it would make me sick. On the other hand, guillotines seem no more gory to me than a kitchen slicer...
Not to worry I also have more "normal" hobbies like collecting handguns, re-enacting Civil War battles and restoring WW-2 armored vehicles - Just kidding - but I do have a keen interest in Civil War and WW-2 history.
You are correct that my depiction of the French Revolution's descent into madness is grossly oversimplified for the purpose of explaining how the guillotine developed and where the multitude of 1792 machines came from. There is however a sense of loss of direction and ideals when the leaders, after advocating Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood, writing a Bill of Human Rights, emancipating slaves, promoting women, casting down privileges and capricious laws, promoting freedom of speech and religion start repressing ideas, start killing off people in a mass-paranoia for exercising their newly gained liberties... going on to repress religion, start killing eachother for political gain... They use mock trials to sentence anyone to death if they deem they "might" not agree with them.
The ease of the death by guillotine may have been a contributing factor to the bloodshed of "The Terror" but one must not forget the tens of thousands that were sommarily shot, drowned or executed by cannon in the ruthless repression in the provinces. Those victims by far exceed the number of those that were beheaded. I see Robespierre as a man with noble ideas (he first proposed that the death penalty be abolished) that got caught up in the cause and completely lost sight of the purpose, bending all principles in the pursuit of power. I cannot forgive him for having Danton and his followers executed for personal political gain. I have always regarded Danton as the greater mind and the more humanitarian side of the Revolution that might have tempered it.