Lot Essay
This interesting box is a rare document expressing the despair in France with the absence of an heir to the Throne during the first seven years of the Reign of King Louis XVI. After eight years of childless marriage, Marie-Antoinette gave birth to the future Madame Royale in 1778, but, as the Salian Law applied in France excluded female heirs to throne from rulership, it was not until the birth of the first Dauphin in 1781 that the continuity of the direct line of the French Bourbons seemed assured. The first Dauphin died in 1789, leaving his younger brother, the future Louis XVII, as Dauphin.