Stock Photo - Guillotine, 1956. The guillotine is named after Dr Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, a National Assembly member who headed the committee charged with finding a new means of executing condemned people quickly and reliably by decapitation. First used in 1792, the guillotine is always associated with the Reign of Terror that prevailed in France in 1793-1794 under Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety. An estimated 15,000 to 40,000 people were condemned to death by guillotine during this time, including Louis XVI of France and his Queen, Marie Antoinette. Robespierre himself met the same fate in July 1794. The guillotine was used for the last time in 1977 and France abolished the death penalty in 1981. A print from Things, a volume about the origin and early history of many things, common and less common, essential and inessential, by Readers Union, the Grosvenor Press, London, 1956.