Auction Name: 2026 February 26 Historical Manuscripts & Texana Signature® Auction

Lot Number: 47243

Shortcut to Lot: HA.com/6328*47243

Georges Jacques Danton Signed Document Concerning the Mounted Gendarmes. Two pages front and back, 9 1/2 x 14 3/8 inches; Paris, [France]; September 5, 1792. Document written in French during the September Massacres, in part [English translation]: "The mounted Gendarmes of the Twenty-ninth division announce that they are departing the day after tomorrow in order to go to the frontiers. They state that having equipped themselves at their own expense, they have been obliged to incur debts...The National Assembly, after having declared urgency, decrees that the Minister of the Interior is authorized to advance the sum of sixty thousand livres...which sum shall be deducted from the portions of their mass funds which are to fall due." Signed at conclusion on the second page, "Danton." Red stamped seal left of signature, and Provisional Executive Council vignette at top of first page.

Signed at the height of the violence (and of his power) while prisoners suspected of being counter-revolutionaries were being killed, Danton authorizes emergency military funding meant to push troops out of Paris and towards the borders. Two years later, Danton would become a voice for moderation and fall victim to the very reign of terror he helped unleash. He was executed by guillotine on April 5, 1794.

Condition: Flattened folds with minor toning. Minor ink show-through. Small ink burn at lower margin, affecting text. Small adhesive stain at lower left, and a small stain at bottom center. Pencil notation at upper left.

Provenance: Rennes Enchères Bretagne.

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