Sunday 28 September 2014

Tussaud head of Marie-Antoinette


http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b530282798




Head of Carrier
Yes, yet more! This head of Marie-Antoinette is reproduced from a photograph in the Collection de Vinck in the Bibliothèque nationale (département Estampes).  It is identified as from Madame Tussaud's and dated 1906. This gives us a date for the equally fine and very similarly mounted Carrier reproduced in the Romance of Madame Tussaud (1920).   (Compare also the Robespierre with the ribbon round his chin which I have since also seen identified as from Madame Tussaud's)
Wax heads of Marie-Antoinette are attested at Tussaud's only from 1865, but royal tableaux were a feature of Curtius's waxworks at an early date.  


Here is another old picture of the royal heads, posted on Le Boudoir de Marie-Antoinette; apparently it was on sale on e-bay for 330 Euro; I wonder if anyone paid?.  See:
http://maria-antonia.justgoo.com/t139p75-marie-antoinette-par-madame-tussaud

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