Paris, de l’Imprimerie de Didot l’Ainé, 1789.
Folio poster [525 x 385 mm] printed on satin. The speech is framed with a frieze made of a grid-pattern decorated tiny flowers, with in the center a medallion decorated with royal coat of arms. On each side, the speech is framed with a column of lowers surmounted with the portrait of Louis XVI on the left and Marie-Antoinette on the right. Two small tears. Preserved in an antique gilt frame.
Precious copy of the historic speech pronounced by Louis XVI on the opening of the Estates-General on May 5th 1789.
Unmentioned issue, printed on satin by Didot l’aîné, whereas the regular issue on paper was coming from the presses of the Imprimerie royale.
In front of a political and financial situation both catastrophic, Louis XVI is forced to convene the Estates-General, this assembly of the three orders – nobility, clergy and Third estate –, which are the only one able to decide the collect of new taxes and start the reform of the country. The opening, on May 5th 1789 in Versailles, marks the French revolution. On May 4th 1789, takes place in Versailles the last great ceremony of the Ancien Regime: the procession of the Estates-General. On May 5th, starts the solemn opening session. Convened since July the 5th 1788, the General-Estates have not been gathered since 1614! A temporary room with columns has been erected behind the Menus-Plaisirs of the avenue de Paris. Unlike the famous engraving, the room is tiny. The king, surrounded by the queen and the princes of the blood, is sitting enthroned at the end of the room under a majestic canopy. The deputies are sitting around on many rows. The ones of the Third estate will give birth in June, with some of the clergy, to the first National Assembly. Louis XVI opens the session with a speech in which he reminds the circumstances that led him to this convening and what he is waiting from the General-Estates. As a peace-loving king, he declares himself “the first friend of his people”. Of course, the King will mention in his speech the economical problems the country is going through, but will refrain from evoking the political reforms waited on the vote of the deputies. Unhappy of this mediocre speech without ambition of reforms, and aware of the expectations of the country, the Third estate will take control. The Revolution has started.
“M. d’Estaing presented each member of the general assembly of the Paris Commune, with a copy of the speech pronounced by the king to the National Assembly on May 5th, superbly printed on satin, and illustrated with portraits of the king and the queen. We read around the first one, these verses by M. de la Harpe : ‘Father of his subjects, he is their model.’ Around the one of the queen, this other verse: ‘A wise person to the supreme rank found everything in her.” (J.-P.-L.- de Luchet, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de l’année 1789, p. 283).
The Comte d’Estaing (1729–1794) was an aristocrat and a French serviceman. He will serve his country during the war of the Austrian Succession, the campaign in the Indian Ocean and on the other side of the Atlantic. After a career on the field with mixed results, he is appointed in 1789 major of the National Guard in Versailles where he will play an equivocal role.
Precious copy, printed on satin, of the historical speech pronounced by the king on the eve of the French revolution.
