Guillotine blade

This guillotine blade, still mounted with rivets to its original lead weighted wooden block, was used on the West Indian island of Guadeloupe by French republicans during revolutionary struggles there. It is said to have been used to execute more than 50 royalists.

This guillotine is likely to have been taken to the Americas by the French Revolutionary commissar Victor Hugues, when he was sent to Martinique and Guadeloupe to purge the royalists. In 1794 the British occupied Guadeloupe and Captain Matthew Scott of HMS Rose is said to have brought back the guillotine blade as a war trophy.

Object Details

ID: TOA0079
Collection: Punishment and restraint
Type: Guillotine blade
Display location: Display - Atlantic Gallery
Creator: Unknown
Vessels: Rose 1783 (HMS)
Date made: 1792
Exhibition: The Atlantic: Slavery, Trade, Empire; War and Conflict
People: Hugues, Victor; Scott, Vice Matthew Henry
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Royal United Service Institution Collection
Measurements: Overall: 585 x 345 x 152 mm
Close

Your Request

If an item is shown as “offsite”, please allow eight days for your order to be processed. For further information, please contact Archive staff:

Email:
Tel: (during Library opening hours)

Click “Continue” below to continue processing your order with the Library team.

Continue