Arizona state miner., 1925-05-09
PRICELESS WAX
EFFIGIES BURN

exhibits all through the night. For
days afterward huge pilgrimages were
made to the ruins-frOm the provinces
the disconsolate country cousins came
in trainloads-and everyone displayed
the feeling of a national loss.
Woman Founder.
That the private commercial enter
prise of little Frenchwoman founded
120 years ago should have blossomed
into q British national asset is q re-
markable tribute to the foresight and
business acumen of it's originator.
Nine. Tussaud-Marie Grosbolz, as
she was then-was survivor of the
French revolution and she undoubt-
edly owed her life to her skill In.
modelling in war. The revolutionary
tribunal spared her in order that she
might make death masks of the royal
lists and other famous folk who fell
under the guillotine From this grue-
some occupation rose the world-famous
exhibition until recently housed In
Marylebone road.
She learned modelling from her
uncle, John Christopher Curtius, a
sculptor, who executed numerous com
missions for Louis XVI and his court.
Curtius originally was a surgeon and
made wax models in connection with
the science of medicine, but from ana
tomical models he turned to complete
figures, and they were of such excel
lence that the Prince de Cont and
other patrons of art induced him to
devote himself to sculpture and model
ing.
His niece, Marie, became even more
expert than her tutor, and in a way
it might be said that sheer her art
was one Of the final causes of the
revolution. When Louis XVI appoint
ed the hated Foulon to succeed the
beloved Necker there was commotion,
and an excited orator suggested car
rying busts Of Necker and Philippe
Egalite through the streets in triumph,
to show their disapproval of the kings
action.
Started Revolution.
The only busts available were those
In Curtius' museum in the Boulevard
du Temple. They were the work of
the future Nine Tussaud, and in the
ensuing demonstration there was the
bloodshed which started the revolu-
tiOn.
Marie's connection with the court
led to her Imprisonment after the
storming of the Bastille, and she was
placed in the same prison as Nine. de
Beauharnais, who afterward became
the wife of Napoleon, thus establish
ing her friendly relationship with the
Great Shadow Of Europe"
The Jacobins remembered her skill
at modelling and called upon her to
take death masks of the king, Marie
Antoinette, Charlotte Corday, Marat
Robespierre and other victims of the
terrible engine of M. Guillotin. Her
most awful task was taking a cast of
the mangled remains of the princess
de Lamballe, and this she was COM
PEELED to perform under threat of
death.
Napoleon on becoming first consul,
| remembered his wife's prison compan-
ion and before leaving for Egypt he
| commissioned her to take his mask
for Josephine. But the revolution hor-
rors had sickened Nine. Tussaud-she
had married Tussaud In 1904. but sep
arated from him later-Of her native
country and she obtained Napoleon's
permission to move to England in
1902, taking with her her collection of
models and original death masks. At
the old Lyceum theater, London (then
known as the English Opera house),
she opened her first exhibition and,
after year. she toured the provinces,
continuing to travel for many years
through all parts of the kingdom.
Once Novelty.
"Waxworks'' in those days were a
novelty and no imitatOrs had such ar
| tistic models or gruesomely authentic
relics as the little Frenchwoman.