There is an ironic twist to this dried gourd. Squash Holds King Louis XVI's Blood

I never cease to be amazed by the artisanship found in everyday objects from past centuries, especially when compared with the near total lack of it today.

The gourd that held some of the sanguinary relics as a revolutionary souvenir of King Lois XVI guillotining is a case in point. It is a simple, relatively inexpensive vessel, yet it is elaborately decorated. Nearly every bit of its decorated with elaborate scrimshaw style etching. It is clearly the work of an amateur, but beautifully excited none the less.
There are three portraits of citizen revolutionary leaders etched into a vignette with their names cut into an arch around them. The citizens named on the gourd are Georges Danton, Jean-Paul Marat and Camille Desmoulins.
Louis And Marie Antionette were captured attempting to flee to Austria, thus they were found guilty of treaso. The former Louis XVI, now simply named Citoyen Louis Capet (Citizen Louis Capet), was executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793 on the Place de la Révolution.
Louis' decapitated head was preserved and gruesome blood souvenirs were sopped up with handkerchiefs, rags and bits of torn petticoats. Some of that blood was preserved in the Gourd. 
Ironically, the three icons of the Revolution pictured on the gourd were to die within two years of the execution of Louis.
The first to die was Jean-Paul Marat. He was assassinated in his bath July 13, 1793 (possibly accounting for the French being bathing averse). 
Georges Danton and Camille Desmoullins were both guillotined the following year April 5, 1794, after a trial where they were allowed no defence. They were victims of the politics of the Committee of Public Safety. 
Sound much like the politics for our Public Safety today.


Squash Holds King Louis XVI's Blood | French Royalty | LiveScience

Tia Ghose, LiveScience Staff Writer   Date: 02 January 2013

More than 200 years ago, France's King Louis XVI was killed (along with his wife, Marie Antoinette) via guillotine, and legend has it someone used a handkerchief to soak up the king's blood, then stored the handkerchief in a gourd.

Now scientists have confirmed that a squash emblazoned with figures from the French Revolution indeed contains the dried blood of the executed king.

Scientists matched DNA from the blood with DNA from a detached and mummified head believed to be from a direct ancestor of King Louis XVI, the 16th-century French king Henry IV. The new analysis, which was published Dec. 30 in the journal Forensic Science International, confirmed the identity of both French royals.

"We have these two kings scattered in pieces in different places in Europe," said study co-author Carles Lalueza-Fox, a paleogenomics researcher at Pompeu Fabra University in Spain. The new analysis confirms that the two men "are separated by seven generations and they are paternally related." 

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