FRENCH

Apparently-unpublished manuscript poem, in French, entitled 'Aux Amis de Pierre Dupont'.

Author: 
J. Dupuis [Pierre Dupont (1821-1870), French poet and song writer]
Publication details: 
Dated 'Lyon 7 Avril 1877 | [signed] J. Dupuis'.
£180.00

On one side of a piece of laid paper roughly 27 x 21 cm. Text clear and entire on aged and lightly creased paper. Chipped, with slight loss and closed tears, to extremities. Thirty-lines in Alexandrine couplets, beginning 'L'Ame du chansonnier (si l'ame est immortelle) | Doit tressaillir pieuse à votre amour fidèle.' and ending 'Gravons sur sa mémoire un souvenir profond: | Son nom n'est pas de ceux que les siècles refont.' The date and signature are in the right-hand margin, towards the bottom right-hand corner.

Autograph Letter Signed, in French, to the Paris bookseller Paul Daffis.

Author: 
Eugène Flachat (1802-1873), French civil engineer who worked on the first French passenger railway (Paris-Le Pecq, 1837), on the Paris-Rouen line and the Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris, 1851 [steam engines]
Publication details: 
26/02/59
£85.00

12mo: 1 p. Fifteen lines of text. Good, on aged and lightly-creased paper. Minor foxing. Difficult hand. Begins 'Je voudrais avoir cette année la collection des Documents parlementaire qui seront distribué au corps legislatif. | Autrefois j'étais abonné pour une petite somme [...]'.

Secretarial note in French, signed by Flachat.

Author: 
Eugène Flachat (1802-1873), French civil engineer who worked on the first French passenger railway (Paris-Le Pecq, 1837), on the Paris-Rouen line and the Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris, 1851 [steam engines]
Publication details: 
23 February 1856; Paris.
£56.00

12mo: 1 p. Good, on lightly creased paper. Reads 'Je remets à Mr Pulin, porteur de la présente, la lettre de Mr Savoye pour l'aider à retirer les exemplaires des médailles et les diplômes donnés à MM les Membres du Jury.' Presumably relating to the awarding of prizes at an industrial exhibition.

Autograph Note Signed ('Herman C. Merivale') to the London publisher Samuel French. With a printed subscription form, filled in by Merivale.

Author: 
Herman Charles Merivale (1839-1906), English playwright and novelist [victorian publisher Samuel French, of 89 The Strand, London; James Robinson Planché]
Publication details: 
Letter: 25 April 1879; on embossed letterhead of the Union Club, Brighton. Subscription form: undated.
£56.00

Letter: 12mo, 1 p. Grubby and stained. He 'did not mention the Planché-affair' in his letter of the day before. Asks for his name to be put down 'for a copy of the book' [French's edition of Planché's 'Extravaganzas']. The subscription form (12mo, 1 p), heavily worn and with loss to the extremities, is laid down on the reverse of the letter. On it Merivale gives his address as 'Barton Lodge, Kingston on Thames'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Amaury-Duval') to unnamed female correspondent.

Author: 
Amaury Duval (1760-1838), founder (1794) of the French review 'La décade philosophique, littéraire et politique'; member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres [the French Revolution]
Publication details: 
30 Germinal' [no year, but between 1794 and 1805].
£56.00

12mo, 1 p, 14 lines. Good, on aged and lightly creased paper. Small red oval monogram in top left-hand corner. In French. As he was about to come and see her 'on est venu me chercher pour des affaires urgentes. il faut que je sorte à l'heure même'. The only news is that 'le ministre des finances refuse très inhumainement la petite maison d'Angivillers. S'il persiste, il y aura, plus que jamais, impossibilité de Loger plus à l'aise les Personnes qui réclament contre la première Distribution'.

Long manuscript list of books required.

Author: 
Aubin, imprimeur-libraire, à Aix, et à Arles, même maison' [the French nineteenth-century book trade]
Imprimerie, Librairie et Cabinet de Lecture d'Aubin
Publication details: 
16 February 1850; on illustrated letterhead.
£56.00
Imprimerie, Librairie et Cabinet de Lecture d'Aubin

4to, 2 pp. Apparently the first leaf of the list only. On aged paper, with wear and chipping to extremities, but with text entirely legible. The letterhead carries an engraving (6.5 x 9.5 cm) of a pile of books, quill pen and ink pot, with text advertising the 'Imprimerie, Librairie et Cabinet de Lecture d'Aubin' printed on the open pages of one of the volumes. Beneath the illustration are the words 'LE MÉMORIAL D'AIX, journal politique et littéraire', and there is further text to the right and left of it. In French. Written, in two hands, in light blue ink.

Autograph Letter, in the third person, to 'Mr Sharpe' [Richard 'Conversation' Sharp?].

Author: 
William Windham (1750-1810), English Whig politician [Richard 'Conversation' Sharp (1759-1835)]
Publication details: 
15 February 1804; Pall Mall.
£38.00

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on aged paper. A formal letter in the third person. Windham 'is almost ashamed' of sending Sharpe 'anything so trifling as what accompanies this note'. His justification for doing so is the 'wish of having his opinions stated with tolerable correctness on a subject to which Mr Sharpe, as a matter of some interest at the moment, may happen in some degree to have turned his thoughts.' Sharp's name was often misspelt by contemporaries, and he is listed in the index to the online Oxford DNB as 'also known as Sharpe, Richard'.

Autograph Letter Signed to 'Monsieur Carilian-Goeury, Libraire-éditeur à Paris'.

Author: 
Charles Pražak [Charles Prazak], engineer of Prague, Bohemia [Carilian-Goeury, Parisian bookseller; the French nineteenth-century booktrade; Czechoslovakia; the Czech Republic]
Publication details: 
14 September 1839; Prague.
£75.00

12mo, 3 pp. Good, on browned and lightly creased paper with some wear to extremities. In French. Long thorough order with instructions for delivery, casting light on the logistical problems encountered in international trade in nineteenth-century Europe. Pražak is sending 'six pièces d'or à vingt francs, ou une somme de 120 francs en or', and gives a list of four books he would like sent to him. There follows a discussion of the problems of delivering the books to Prague.

Autograph Letter Signed ('C. N. Allou') to unnamed male correspondent [perhaps the Abbe Moigno of "Cosmos")

Author: 
Charles-Nicolas Allou (1787-1843), engineer and author ['Ingénieur au Corps royal des mines (en 1821); inspecteur en chef des travaux souterrains du département de la Seine']
Publication details: 
30 August 1829; Paris.
£35.00

12mo, 1 p, 16 lines. In French. Very good. Cancelling an appointment, and sending 'l'article que vous m'avez demandé pour la Revue': 'vous êtes parfaitement libre de tailler, couper, et rogner'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Ch Le Blanc'), in French, to the Leipzig bookseller Theodor Oswald Weigel.

Author: 
Charles Le Blanc (1817-1865), French art critic and authority on engraving [Theodor Oswald Weigel (1812-1881), Leipzig bookseller]
Publication details: 
24/01/51
£56.00

12mo, 1 p, 12 lines of text. Good, on lightly aged paper. The second leaf of the bifolium is docketed in a contemporary hand. Le Blanc has received Weigel's twenty-second catalogue, and it has given him pleasure. Like the others it is full of curious details, and is extremely useful to Le Blanc, being full of curious details. He orders several items (crossed through by the firm), the last of which he desires 'vivement' to own.

Handwritten receipt, 'Doit M. Beffroy', signed 'Bougogne et Martinet'.

Author: 
Imprimerie de Bourgogne et Martinet, rue Jacob, 30. [French printers; Paris; Parisian; nineteenth-century book trade; André Galle (1761-1844); Timbre Royal]
Publication details: 
Paris, 14 December 1844.
£56.00

8vo, 1 p. Very good, on lightly discoloured laid paper with 'TIMBRE ROYAL' watermark. In left-hand margin, clear embossed Timbre Royal seal by Galle and black ink 35 centime stamp (both 2.5 cm diameter). Written in a clear, attractive hand. Total of 35F 35c, 'Pour acquit', under three sub-headings: 'Impression de 200 Afficher grand format; pour la Vente des Mobiliers provenant des Successions dévoluer à 'Etat', '200 Timbrer à 10 centimes' and 'Timbre de la Quittance'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. J. Bourassé'), in French, to an unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Abbé Jean-Jacques Bourassé (1813-1872), French archaeologist and author
Publication details: 
6 June 1853; Tours.
£56.00

8vo, 1 p. On lightly creased and grubby paper. Declining to become a corresponding member of the 'Institut historique', as 'les ressources me manquent pour payer les diplomes et les annuités nombreuses qu'imposent les honneurs, quelque flatters qu'ils soient, qu'ont bien voulu me proposer diverses societes savantes'. He has been president of the Archaeological Society of Touraine for some time, and he takes pleasure in reading the publications of the 'Institut historique', received by the Society.

Two Manuscript Letters (both signed 'Lefebvre-Ducrocq') to Martin, one to Martin and the other to Flobert. The letter to Flobert carrying an Autograph Note Signed by the recipient ('Paul Flobert') to Martin.

Author: 
Imprimerie Lefebvre-Ducrocq, Lille, France [Commandant Emmanuel Martin; Paul Flobert; la Société Archéologique, Historique & Artistique le Vieux Papier]
Publication details: 
Letter to Flobert, 19 November 1917; letter to Martin, 30 November 1917. Both letters on letterhead of the Imprimerie Lefebvre-Ducrocq.
£56.00

Both items 4to, 1 p. Both on creased paper with closed tears neatly repaired on reverse with archival tape. Letter to Flobert: Most of the type of Martin's article (in the 'Bulletin de la Société Archéologique, Historique & Artistique le Vieux Papier') still exists, and the printer asks to be informed what quantity of the offprint he requires. 'Le cliché de la 1r page, qui sert à frontispiece, a été renvoyé à M.

One Autograph Letter Signed ('<Emile?> Protat) and one letter in a secretarial hand, both to Martin.

Author: 
Imprimerie Protat Frères, Macon, France (Georges Protat & Neveu Srs.) [Commandant Emmanuel Martin]
Publication details: 
The secretarial letter: Macon, 28 February 1914. Protat's letter: Macon, 3 March 1914. Both on letterhead of the Imprimerie Protat Frères.
£85.00

Both items 12mo, 1 p. Both in good condition. The secretarial letter (docketed in purple 'Repondre le 1r mars 1914'): The 'cliché Durocher', which appeared 'dans le No d'Avril 1913, page 62, et qui doit passer aussi dans le Dictionnaire [des ex-libris français] Wiggishof [...] a été designé par M. du Roure de Paulin'. Protat's letter: 'Le cliché Durocher était bien à l'imprimerie nous l'avons retrouvé. Il n'était pas à la place qu'indiquait le registre.' He apologises for having 'inutilement derangé' Martin

Autograph Letter Signed, in French, to unnamed female correspondent.

Author: 
Léo de Laborde (1805-1874), French politician
Publication details: 
<Visaguet?> 28 de l'an 1865'.
£25.00

12mo, 3 pp, 28 lines. Good, on lightly creased and aged paper. Difficult hand. References to a 'cher Docteur ' and a 'Mr. John '. Docketed in pencil, and with a biography of the archaeologist Léon de Laborde (1807-1869) in pencil in another hand on the reverse of the second leaf of the bifolium.

Autograph Note Signed ('Favé | officier d'ordonnance de l'Empereur | 29 Rue de Bellechasse'), in French, to Pierre Magne (1806-1879), 'Ministre des travaux Publics'.

Author: 
Général de brigade Ildephonse Favé (1812-1894), successively Chevalier, Officier, Commandeur and Grand Officier (1874), aide de camp to Napoléon III
Publication details: 
14 December 1852; Paris, on letterhead of the Maison de l'Empereur ('Service de l'aide de Camp.').
£35.00

12mo, 1 p. Good. On grey laid-paper bifolium. Requesting an audience.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Ch Giraud de l'institut'), in French, to an unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Charles Giraud [Charles-Joseph-Barthélémy Giraud] (1802-1881), French jurist and historian
Publication details: 
29 February [no year]; no place.
£35.00

12mo, 1 p, 12 lines. Good, on lightly aged paper. Drawing the recipient's attention to 'une demande qui a été adressée a M. le Prefet de la Seine, par M. Burnet [an inhabitant of Neuilly], homme infiniment estimable qui sollicite un emploi dans l'administration des pompes funèbres'. Giraud knows Burnet very well, 'et je lui porte un interet particulier'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('L Fournier'), in French, to 'Monsieur le Commandant Martin', Bougiral.

Author: 
L. Fournier, proprietor of the 'Imprimerie-Librarie Militaire Universelle' ('Fournisseur des Ministères de la Guerre, de la Marine et des Colonies') [Maurice Levert (1858-1944), collector; Hanoteau]
Publication details: 
26 July 1913; Paris, on letterhead of the Imprimerie-Librarie Militaire Universelle.
£56.00

8vo, 2 pp. Good. Commercial letterhead spread over ten lines. The next time Martin visits Paris he and Fournier 'pourrions nous entretenir d'une affaire d'un intérêt common'. His approach to Martin is backed by 'M. Maurice Levert et du Captaine Hanoteau'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Dujardin Sailly') to 'Monsieur l'amiral'.

Author: 
Ernest Dujardin-Sailly, French author and customs official
Publication details: 
5 August 1830; 'rue richer No. 15, f. montmartre', Paris.
£38.00

8vo, 1 p. On discoloured paper, worn at head and foot. The only merit of the material he is sending is that it has been inspired by 'des sentiments vrais'. He took it to 'S. A. le prince Lieutenant général du royaume', and part of it had 'du prix à ses yeux'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Alfred Fouillée, Membre de l'Institut'), in French, to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Alfred Fouillée [Alfred Jules Emile Fouillée] (1838-1912), French sociologist and philosopher [solidarism; solidarist; André Beaumier]
Publication details: 
13 March 1902; 'Menton, villa Fouillée'.
£85.00

12mo, 2 pp, 13 lines. Good, on lightly aged paper. He is sending his reply (not present) to an article by André Beaumier 'qui me concerne (Figaro du 11 mars)'. The question of university reform is important and 'à l'ordre du jour', consequently he asks his correspondent to make use of his reply. Fouillee was, according to J. A. Scott, 'the founder of French solidarist philosophy'. Loosely inserted in blue paper folder with catalogue entry for the previous sale of the item laid down on front.

Printed communication, signed 'd'Hozier', to Monsieur Boucher.

Author: 
Ambroise-Louis-Marie d'Hozier (1764-1841), genealogist, 'Vérificateur des Armoiries de France'.
Publication details: 
10 June 1823; Paris.
£35.00

4to, 1 p, 12 lines. Text clear and entire, on creased paper. Printed in copperplate. Requesting subscription money due for his 'Indicateur Nobiliaire'. Good firm signature.

Letter, in a secretarial hand, in French, with what is said to be the illegible signature of Lacretelle [to Lenormand?].

Author: 
Charles Lacretelle le jeune [Jean Charles Dominique de Lacretelle] (1766-1855), historian [Léonce Lenormand, editor of the 'Journal de Saône-et-Loire']
Publication details: 
1 September 1853; place not stated.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp, 32 lines. Good. Docketed in a nineteenth-century hand in pencil in top left-hand corner 'Lacretelle (Charles) à Lenormand, réd. du J. de Saone & Loire à Mâcon' and in another hand 'Acad. Fr'. Asks to be verbally informed of the news of 'Mr. Ochier, à supposer qu'il vous eut enfin révélé le motif de son long silence au milieu des prodiges qui s'opérent aujourd'hui pour les moyens de communication entre les deux hémisphères, je n'aurais jamais pensé que celle de Mâcon et de Cluny, présentassent de telles difficultés'.

Letter in a secretarial hand, Signed by Méline ('J. Méline') as 'Président du Conseil' and 'Ministre de l'Agriculture', to 'Monsieur le Général Tournier | Secrétaire Général de la Présidence de la République'.

Author: 
Félix Jules Méline [Felix Jules Meline] (1838-1925), French Prime Minister, 1896-1898 [Tournier]
Publication details: 
13 February 1897; Paris, on letterhead of 'République Française | Présidence du Conseil | Cabinet du Président'.
£120.00

8vo, 1 p, 13 lines. Very good on lightly aged and creased paper. Docketed in red pencil in another hand. Lists the names of three couples, 'appartenant au cercle de mes relations', who would dearly like to receive 'invitations pour les fétes données au Palais de l'Elysee'. Méline would be 'vivement heureux' if Tournier could give 'satisfaction' to this desire. A good firm signature on a document written during Méline's term as French President.

Autograph Note Signed ('E. de Jonquieres'), on visiting card, to 'Monsieur Lalanne, Conservateur de la Bibliothèque de l'Institut'.

Author: 
Ernest de Jonquières (1820-1901), French naval officer and mathematician [Léon Lalanne [Léon Louis Chrétien Lalanne] (1811-1892), French engineer and mathematician]
Publication details: 
9 July 1886; Paris.
£56.00

Written on both sides of the card, dimensions 5.5 x 9 cm. Good, with a little light scuffing on the front. Communication between two leading lights of French nineteenth-century mathematics. Printed text reads 'VICE-AMIRAL DE JONQUIERES | MEMBRE DE L'INSTITUT | AVENUE BUGEAUD, 2'. Asks Lalanne to 'inscrire Monsieur Bonnaffé, lauréat de l'Institut, parmi les lecteurs'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('L. Lalanne') to 'Monsieur Sisson' ('Mon cher capitaine').

Author: 
Léon Lalanne [Léon Louis Chrétien Lalanne] (1811-1892), French engineer and mathematician [or, I'm told, his brother!]
Publication details: 
9 February [no year]; no place.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp, 11 lines. Concerns the 'porteur de ce billet', a 'M. Laudet', who has been the victim of 'un affreux malentendu'. 'Le malheureux perdait sa femme au moment où il manquait une garde'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Richard Byham, Secretary to the Board of Ordnance, Pall Mall.

Author: 
James Hammond of the Ordnance Office, Jersey [Revolutions of 1848; French Royal Family; Louis XVIII; Board of Ordnance; Ordnance Office, Pall Mall]
Publication details: 
2 March 1848; Jersey.
£150.00

12mo, 3 pp. Ruckled and stained, with the verso of the second leaf of the bifolium (carrying the address) laid down on a leaf detached from an autograph album. The 'Royal Family of France' are causing 'a very deep interest' and 'a portion of them have found their way to this Island'. He reports that the 'Duchesse d'Orleans and her two Sons, and the Duc de Montpensier have arrived here from Granville - they were brought over by a Jersey Boat the Master of which has been most liberally rewarded'.

Four lines in autograph on his calling card as 'Depute, Sous-Secretaire d'Etat à la Justice'.

Author: 
Félix Jules Méline [Felix Jules Meline] (1838-1925), French Prime Minister, 1896-1898
Publication details: 
Undated.
£56.00

Card dimensions 6 x 10.5 cm. Good: lightly aged and with crease to top left-hand corner. Printed text reads 'Jules Méline, Deputé, Sous-Secrétaire d'Etat a la Justice. 84, Boulevard St. Garmain'. The autograph note, in French, is addressed to 'Mon cher ami', whom he addresses as 'tu'. He apologises for having neglected his correspondent's letter among his correspondence. 'Viens me voir à la chancellerie un matin; tu es sûre de me trouver mardi.' Thanks him for his 'bonnes félicitations'.

Document, in French, in a secretarial hand, signed by Méline ('J. Méline'), as Minister of Agriculture, to 'Monsieur Bailly, A.N. Président de la Société des Artistes Français | au Palais des Champs Elysées (porte 4).'

Author: 
Félix Jules Méline [Felix Jules Meline] (1838-1925), French Prime Minister, 1896-1898 [Antoine-Nicolas Louis Bailly (1810-1892), French architect]
Publication details: 
26 April 1884; Paris, on letterhead of the Ministry of Agriculture.
£75.00

8vo, 1 p. On aged paper, with wear and closed tears to extremities. Good, clear signature. Thanking Bailly for the 'cartes' and the 'lettres d'invitation' to the 'Salon de 1884'.

Autograph Letter to 'Monsieur Delacroix'.

Author: 
Michel Alcan (1811-1877), 'ingénieur-professeur au Conservatoire des arts et métiers' [Ernest Stamm; Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)?]
Publication details: 
13 February 1860; Paris.
£28.00

4to, 1 p, 8 lines. Good, on lightly aged paper. Small indentation from paperclip in margin. Reads 'Monsieur Alcan prie Monsieur Delacroix de remettre au porteur le Testament (tissé) de Louis XVI, dont il a besoin pour le cours de ce soir au conservatoire des Arts et metier. | le preparateur du cours | Ernest Stamm | Paris le 13 fevrier 1860'. Loosely inserted in blue paper wraps with slip of an entry for the letter from a French autograph catalogue, misattributing it to Stamm.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Costaz') to 'Monsieur Dupont' and his son.

Author: 
Baron Louis Costaz (1767-1842), French mathematician and engineer
Publication details: 
19 October 1841; Mousseau.
£75.00

12mo, 1 p, 12 lines. Inviting 'M.M. Dupont, père et fils' to help him eat 'le civet d'un lievre qui a eu la Bêtise de se laisser tuer par une femme du hameau du Mousseau'.

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