At Auction in Paris: Louis XVI Post-Beheading 'Bloodstain'

• A piece of cloth smeared with the blood of Louis XVI, the French king who was beheaded after the 1789 revolution, will go on sale next month in Paris 
• The cloth, measuring 9 cm by 13 cm (3.5 by 4.7 inches), comes in a miniature coffin. 
• It is accompanied by a handwritten piece of paper that says: "The precious blood of Louis XVI, 21 January 1793" -- the day he was guillotined in the heart of Paris. 
• Parisians had jostled to take souvenirs after the execution including snippets of the monarch's hair. They also dipped their garments or cloth in the pool of blood left near the guillotine.