The revolver used by Verlaine. © CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LIMITED 2016 UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR 434,500
The gun bought by Paul Verlaine bought with the intention of killing Arthur Rimbaud comes up at Christie’s Exceptional Sale in Paris on November 30. The poets had known each other since 1871 and were inseparable. Verlaine was married but decided to flee to London with Rimbaud in 1873. In May and June of that year in London they quarrelled violently. On July 3 Verlaine left London to seek refuge in Brussels. Rimbaud soon joined him, but then decided to return to Paris. Verlaine then shot him twice with a gun he bought from a gunsmith in Brussels on July 10, 1873. He managed only to to shoot the wrist. Rimbaud then spent ten days in the hospital, and Verlaine was sent to jail for two years. The story of the Brussels affair in well documented statements and depositions taken at the time is now kept at the Royal Library in Belgium. The gun is estimated at 50,000-70,000.
UPDATE: It was sold to an anonymous bidder on the telephone for 434,500. The Exceptional Sale realised 4,031,150.
