TROMPE L'OEIL AUX ASSIGNATS from the late 18th century. Etching with some color highlights. Proof on watermarked laid paper. Full margins. The assignat was a paper currency that existed during the French Revolution from 1790 to 1796. Initially conceived as an interest-bearing loan instrument reserved for the purchase of national property, the assignat quickly became a non-interest-bearing bill that could be used for all kinds of purchases. Large quantities were printed, not counting those smuggled in by enemies of the Revolution. In just a few years, Paris became a broken city. The city whose economic and cultural wealth had made the rest of Europe fantasize was transformed into a huge cesspool of anarchy and misery. The value of these assignats fell sharply in relation to that of metal coinage, which became scarce. On February 19, 1796, the assignats were publicly burned in Place Vendôme, but the huge bonfire did not prevent the Directoire from going bankrupt. In the months that followed, numerous trompe-l'oeil engravings of crumbling old assignats began to circulate in Paris. This composition of scattered groups of bills, as if thrown away in a gesture of desperation, testifies to the uselessness of assignats during this period of crisis... 84 x 57 cm. Condition B (stains in dusty margins and verso).