Sold – Marquis de Sade Wants His Coach and Coachmen Outfitted in Black

Sade was a philosopher of extreme freedom (or at least licentiousness), unrestrained by morality, religion or law, with the pursuit of personal pleasure being the highest principle. Beginning in 1763, he lived mainly in or near Paris. Several prostitutes there complained about mistreatment by him and he was put under surveillance by the police who made detailed reports of his escapades. Inspector Marais was in charge and he was kept busy tracking Sade’s activities and by 1766 was warning bordellos not to allow Sade to bring their girls to his castle. On January 24, 1767, Sade’s father died, leaving him his holdings, and the new marquis set about putting things in order in his own particular style. For one things, he wanted his coachmen and horses dressed in black.

Autograph Letter Signed, Wednesday, 30 October 1767, to Monsieur Carillie, rue St. Honoré in Paris. "Kindly provide to the carrier of this note what it is necessary of the black fabric in order to dress my five servants as you did me during the mourning of my father last year, as well as the same quantity of fabric needed for the harnesses of which there will be four…”

Just five months after this, on April 3, 1768, Sade took a prostitute, Rose Keller, to his Arcueil house for a whipping. She escaped and pressed charges. Even though Keller dropped the charges for a generous settlement, the extraordinary public scandal forces the King to imprison the marquis; Sade would spend 32 years of his life in prison and there wrote his most famous works.