During the French Revolution, an enterprising citizen organises a Loterie de la Sainte Guillotine, he is seen here reading out the names of the winners. According to Wikipedia a number was attached to the head of each person to be executed and then after all the executions, the executioner would pull out one head and the people with the number that matched the one on the head were awarded prizes. From Histoire de la Revolution Francaise

---

Size: 4749px × 3574px
Photo credit: © Classic Image / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 18th, archival, archive, attached, awarded, century, citizen, de, engraving, executed, executions, france, french, guillotine, head, historical, history, illustration, la, loterie, lottery, names, number, organises, period, picture, print, prizes, revolution, sainte, vintage, winners