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Vellum manuscript DS in French, signed “Marie-Antoinette,” one page, 15 x 10.25, November 20, 1789. A debt acknowledgment related to expenses from six years prior, in part (translated): “Marc Antoine Francois Marie de la Tour, administrator of the Royal Treasury, in charge of our household expenditures has paid for the year 1783 the amount of 32,000 livres to our lady-in-waiting for our tissues and clothes.” Marie Antoinette certifies below with three autograph lines: “Receipt of the amount of thirty two thousand livres given to us in our hands during the year seventeen eighty three. Marie-Antoinette.” Countersigned by her secretary Beaugeard. A scarce paper seal depicting Marie Antoinette’s coat of arms is present to the lower left. Affixed to a same-size sheet and in very good to fine condition, with rippling and toning (primarily to the edges) and a tear to the left blank area.
In 1788, the spending of the Royal Household alone made up 13% of total state expenses. By 1789, the country's finances were in disarray and the impoverished people were in uproar over the king's absolute power and frivolous lifestyle. On October 5, 1789, an angry mob marched on the Palace of Versailles and attempted to kill Queen Marie Antoinette. After the situation was defused by the Marquis de Lafayette, Marie Antoinette and the royal family were forced to return to Paris from Versailles and placed under house arrest in Tuileries Palace.
This document, dating to mere weeks after their arrival at Tuileries, documents the reality of Marie Antoinette's ostentatious lifestyle, with the 32,000 livres paid for “tissues and clothes”—equivalent to about $300,000—reinforcing the legend of the queen’s extravagant spending. Documents boasting multiple lines of Marie Antoinette's handwriting are quite scarce, and her autograph is always desirable.
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