Historical manuscripts, autograph letters from personalities, first edition testimonies, antique documents, handwritten accounts of great events

Autograph letter from Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, written in a tall, narrow hand on one page, addressed to his wife Renée-Pélagie.
Undated, this letter was written in early July 1779 at the Vincennes prison. It is published in Marquis de Sade. Lettres à sa femme, Marc Buffat, 1997 (p. 112).

Marginal dampstaining, a few creases, and a small marginal loss from the letter's unsealing. Address to Madame de Sade in Paris on the verso.

Autograph postcard, signed "Alain", addressed to Lucien Daniaux in Papeete, Tahiti, written on the reverse of a photographic portrait of a smiling young Polynesian woman. Stamp of Australian Papua, postal marks, English censorship stamp ("passed by censor").

Sent a few months before his death, this postcard documents the final journey of the French traveller, undertaken amid the hostile climate of the Second World War.

Autograph letter signed "Luzio," by Luc-Julien-Joseph Casabianca. Two and a half pages in black ink on a bifolium, with autograph date (8 Prairial - 28 May 1798) and address. A few minor marginal tears affecting two letters with no loss of text, and a small corner loss to the address leaf without loss of text.

A precious letter written by Luce de Casabianca "aboard the Orient" to his brother-in-law, André Colonna Ceccaldi who led a Corsican uprising for independance the following year. 

Casabianca speaks...

Autograph note signed by Victor Hugo in ink on a newspaper cutting:

"Par le Ph.[are] de la L[oire] d'aujourd'hui j'apprends que je suis un traître j'en prends acte"

This modest yet powerful note is emblematic of the mythic Hugolian tradition of the "copeaux", or little "shavings" of paper. As an outlet, a catharsis for this overflow of thoughts and agitation, the writer accumulated ill-fated fragments: "Hugo's writing also has its wild, untamed side. Hugo was a graphomaniac: for him, writing was an imperious gesture, bound to no place or hour. Words, phrases...

First edition.

A single copy recorded in the CCFr (Roanne).

Contemporary half green calf, smooth spine cracked and with losses, marbled paper boards, original printed wrappers preserved, binding of the period.

Lower board tending to detach.

The Venetian historian Ronaldo Fulin (1824–1884) produced numerous publications and original studies based on the exceptionally rich holdings of the Archivio di Stato of Venice.

The question addressed in this communication is linked to the presumed relations between Columbus and Venice (see the accompanying letters).

Copy from the library of the celebrated Americanist Henry Harrisse (1829–1910), a specialist...

Complete autograph manuscript of 50 pages, written on the recto of each leaf and containing numerous deletions and revisions.

The manuscript was published in the December 1872 issue of the Bulletin de la Société de Géographie.

Full red shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt fleurons and double gilt panels adorned with floral tools, double gilt fillets on the boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt dentelle border on the pastedowns, gilt edges on the boards, corners rubbed, contemporary binding.

The leaves are numbered 1 to 50 in the upper left corner; an earlier numbering, struck through, appears in the upper...

Letter written by a secretary and signed by Louis XVI, addressed to Cardinal Ludovico Calini, in ink over eleven lines. The signature of Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes, appearing at the foot of the bifolium, accompanies that of the King for these New Year wishes. The recipient's name is inscribed on the verso: "Mon Cousin le Cardinal Calino".

A few waterstains, a small hole at "qu'il vous ait".

"My Cousin, I have seen with pleasure from your letter of October 1st the token of the sincerity of the wishes you express for me at the beginning of this year. Your good intentions are as well known to me as you must be certain of my desire to give you...

Rare first edition illustrated with 31 figures in the text.

Contemporary half blond calf, the spine slightly sunned, with five raised bands decorated with gilt and black fillets, fawn morocco lettering-piece, marbled paper sides, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, sprinkled comb-marbled edges.

Christophe-Edouard Mauss (1829–1914), architect to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, undertook several archaeological missions in the Levant (Salonika, Smyrna, Alexandria) before being sent by the French government to Jerusalem (1862–1874) to restore the Church of Saint Anne.

He was also deeply interested in ancient metrology, on which he wrote several monographs (the final...

First edition of this collection of political speeches.

Full red percaline binding, smooth spine without lettering showing slight rubbing, gilt inscription stamped to the upper cover: "République de Guinée R.D.A. à S.E. Jean Paul Sartre. N°30"; endpapers partly toned, a contemporary presentation binding offered to Jean-Paul Sartre.

Frontispiece photographic portrait bearing the autograph signature of President Ahmed Sékou Touré: Secretary General of the Parti Démocratique de Guinée, Supreme Leader of the Revolution.

Unpublished complete autograph manuscript, dated and signed, written by the Vicomte Edmond de Poncins between 12 September 1891 and 12 June 1892. 775 pages, incorrectly numbered 1-567 and then 567-774. Small folio (21 x 34.5 cm).

Contemporary half dark green shagreen with corners, spine with five raised bands ruled in black and decorated with blind compartments and central gilt floral tools, lettered in gilt "Notes sur l'Inde, 1892". At the beginning of the volume, the author himself gives the slightly different title "Notes sur les Indes". Green boards framed with blind rules, comb-marbled...

Paris, Auxerre and various places, January 1886-August 1887.

A collection of 59 autograph letters signed by Gustave Borgnis-Desbordes and addressed to members of his family, comprising approximately 180 pages, mostly octavo. Most are written on black-bordered mourning paper; several bear the letterhead of the French Ministry of the Navy and Colonies, Inspectorate-General of Artillery.

The letters extend from January 1886 to August 1887. Almost all were written in Paris, a few bear no place, and one was written at Auxerre on 1 July 1886. Forty-seven...

Manuscript of 83 leaves of this French–Bunda dictionary, probably unpublished and unsigned.

This manuscript is certainly the first French–Bunda vocabulary (cf. Gay 3068 and Brunet I-1544).

Half red shagreen binding, spine with four raised bands ruled in black, gilt date at foot, minor rubbing to spine, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, contemporary binding.

Autograph signed calling card addressed to theatre director Simone Benmussa, 8 lines in black felt-tip, with the original envelope.

"Chère Simone Benmussa, quel succès ! J'en reçois les échos de tous côtés ! Nous vous devons tous cette merveilleuse soirée. Laiseez-moi vous dire encore Merci et Bravo. En toute amitié. R. Badinter."

Literary adviser to the Jean-Louis Barrault – Madeleine Renaud Company and, from 1957, editor-in-chief of the Cahiers Renaud-Barrault, Simone Benmussa also headed, from the Odéon Theatre, the company’s cultural department and its journal. She adapted for the stage several works by her friend Nathalie...

Autograph postcard signed by Albert Einstein to Ludwig Hopf. 18 lines written verso and recto, address also in Einstein's handwriting. Postmarked June 21, 1910. 

Published in The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 5: The Swiss Years: Correspondence, 1902-1914, Princeton University Press, 1993, n°218, p. 242.

An exceptional and highly aesthetic card from Albert Einstein to "the friend of the greatest geniuses of his time" - according to Schrödinger - mathematician and physicist Ludwig Hopf, who introduced Einstein to another 20^th-century genius: Carl Jung.
The master invites his pupil Hopf to a dinner...

Black and white photographic portrait depicting the Philippine dictator seated at his desk.

Accompanied by an official letter on the headed paper of the Office of the President of the Philippines, together with its envelope.

Manuscript signature of Ferdinand Marcos in black ink.

Provenance: from the collection of renowned autograph collector Claude Armand.

Black-and-white photograph depicting cosmonaut Boris Yegorov in uniform adorned with his military decorations.

A handsome copy.

Rare autograph signed in blue felt-tip pen by Boris Yegorov in the left margin of the print.

On October 12, 1964, aboard Voskhod 1, Boris Yegorov completed his sole spaceflight as a physician, participating in the first mission in history to carry a crew of three.

Provenance: from the collection of renowned autograph collector Claude Armand.

Black and white portrait photograph showing Tito facing the camera.

A well-preserved example. Included are an envelope bearing the letterhead of the Yugoslav Embassy, a printed card from the same embassy, and a typewritten letter from the Yugoslav Consulate thanking Claude Armand for his request for a photograph of Tito.

Bold blue ink autograph by Tito in the right-hand margin of the photograph.

Provenance: from the collection of noted autograph collector Claude Armand.

Autograph letter signed and dated April 16, 1912, by Henri Bergson, addressed to M. Masson de Saint-Félix. Includes the original autograph envelope, bearing an inscription by the recipient: "Lettre de M. Bergson / Membre de l'Institut / mon professeur de philosophie au Lycée de Clermont Fd".

Touching letter of condolence from Henri Bergson to a former student from his philosophy class in Clermont-Ferrand, where he taught for five years — from 1883 to 1888 — at the Lycée Blaise-Pascal and the Faculty of Letters.

"Mon cher ami,

La nouvelle du grand deuil qui vous frappe me touche profondément. Laissez-moi vous envoyer...

Three-and-a-quarter-page manuscript written in black ink on a bifolium.

One vertical fold.

Manuscript detailing the nominal roster of the Spanish squadron that set sail under the command of Don Luis de Cordova, Don Antonio de Ulloa, and Don Miguel Gastón.

Autograph card signed and dated 18 February 1909 by Henri Bergson, to Mr. Masson de Saint-Félix.

Two years after the publication of L'Evolution créatrice, Bergson expresses his gratitude to a former student from his philosophy class in Clermont-Ferrand, where he taught for five years — from 1883 to 1888 — at the Lycée Blaise-Pascal and the Faculty of Arts.

"Thank you, my dear friend, for your kind note. I hardly need to tell you how fondly I remember your time in my class at Clermont. I do not know whether I shall be able to visit Lozère any time soon, as you kindly encourage me to do; but if you happen to be in Paris, it would give...

Autograph letter by Pierre-Joseph-Marie Proudhon, signed and dated 7 November 1862. 3 pages in black ink on a bifolium. Fold of the bifolium weakened, without affecting the text. Not included in the correspondence published by Lacroix in 1875.
Significant and likely unpublished letter from Proudhon to his publisher Alphonse Lebègue, whom he considers "the cause of liberty in France and independence in Belgium" in these lines. 

Proudhon underscores the importance of his ideological struggle for federalism in Europe, following the controversial publication of his pamphlet La Fédération et l’unité en Italie, and a...

Unpublished political, scientific and historical archives

The complete manuscript unpublished papers of Louis, Chevalier de Sade (1753-1832), author of the Lexicon politique and cousin of the famous Marquis.
The important geopolitical, historical, and scientific archives of a learned aristocrat, a privileged witness of the end of the Ancien Régime, the French Revolution, the Consulate, Empire, and Restoration.
A unique fund of research on the implementation of a constitutional monarchy.

Unpublished autograph letter signed by the Marquis de La Fayette to the Marquis Victor de La Tour-Maubourg, written from “Metz” and dated “the 4th” in Lafayette’s hand. Two and a quarter pages in ink on a bifolium. A minor perforation, not affecting the text; with a red “V. JACOB Metz” stamp on the blank verso of the bifolium. Two discreet paper reinforcements at the foot and head of the sheet’s fold.

La Fayette wrote this profoundly political letter in 1792 from Metz — the very city where, as a young officer, he had made the decision to set sail and...

Autograph manuscript titled Requeste singulière de Nosseigneurs les Ducs et Pairs et de Mesdames les Duchesses au Régent - L'an 1716 ["Singular Request from My Lords the Dukes and Peers and from My Ladies the Duchesses to the Regent - The year 1716"]. Six pages written in black ink, without erasures or corrections.
19th-century binding in half marbled sheep, smooth rubbed spine decorated with gilt and blind fillets, title label along the spine, paste-paper boards stamped at their center with the arms of Adélaïde Édouard Lelièvre de la Grange, marquis de la Grange and de Fourilles [information kindly provided by M. Jérôme-Paul Carré], pebbled paper endpapers and pastedowns, De...

Original photograph depicting Emilio Visconti-Venosta in frontal view.

Contemporary silver print bearing, at the foot of the image, the blindstamp of Roman photographer Lorenzo Suscipj, a pioneer of photography in Italy.

Minor black specks to the surface of the photograph.

Mounted on a stiff card sheet printed with the photographer’s address.

A rare dated and signed autograph inscription by Emilio Visconti-Venosta to the verso: “À M Henri Fournier, souvenir d’un ami, E. Visconti-Venosta. Rome. 18 January 1877”.  ['To Mr Henri Fournier, a token from a friend, E. Visconti-Venosta. Rome, 18...

Autograph letter signed by Jacques Mesrine, dated Wednesday 29 December 1976,  addressed to Jeanne Schneider, his love interest of the time. She smuggled out of prison the manuscript of his famous autobiography L'Instinct de mort. 66 lines in blue ink on two pages of a leaf. In the top left-hand corner of the letter, Jacques Mesrine has drawn a bouquet of flowers in multicoloured felt-tip pens. Usual horizontal fold, small tear to the fold in the right-hand margin.
Jacques Mesrine, who was in Fleury-Mérogis prison at the time, was delighted to receive so much proof of love and friendship in the many letters he received from his friends and family.
He, in...

Autograph letter signed by Emile Zola addressed to Octave Mirbeau, dated in his hand March 4, 1901. Two pages in black ink on a bifolium.
Horizontal fold mark inherent to postal delivery.
Published in his Correspondence, vol. X, p. 242.
Precious letter from Zola to his great supporter Octave Mirbeau, who had paid his fine at the end of his second trial for "J'accuse!".
Now amnestied, the writer attempts - in vain - to recover the sum to reimburse him.
After his historic cry from the heart in l'Aurore, Zola was first condemned by the Seine jury on February 23, 1898 to one year in prison and a three thousand franc fine. The judgment was overturned on appeal...

Autograph letter most probably unpublished signed addressed by Juliette Drouet to her lover Victor Hugo, four pages written in black ink on a bifolium. 
Transverse folds inherent to mailing, fold joining the two leaves reinforced with a fine strip of pasted paper barely perceptible.
Absent from the very complete online edition of Juliette Drouet's letters to Hugo by the Centre d'Études et de Recherche Éditer/Interpréter (University of Rouen-Normandy).
Very beautiful declaration of love and admiration by Juliette Drouet, the day after Hugo's plea defending his son. Charles Hugo had been brought before the assizes, and condemned despite his father's...

Autograph letter initialed by Emile Zola, dated in his hand April 10, 1898. Four pages in black ink on a bifolium, addressed to Octave Mirbeau's wife.
Horizontal fold mark inherent to mailing, very rare and discrete foxing on the first leaf.
A particularity of this exile correspondence, Zola chose to omit his signature in his letters - or as here, to initial only, protecting himself from censorship or police investigations.
Published in his Complete Works, vol. XXV, ed. F. Bernouard, 1927, p. 820.
Heart-wrenching letter by Zola written in complete exile, the most unknown retreat, the most absolute silence. The justiciar writer is secluded in England...

Autograph letter dated and signed by Charles de Gaulle, addressed to his cook Augustine Bastide, who served him from 1940 to 1958. 21 lines in black ink on his headed paper.

Fold mark inherent to postal folding, minor tears of no consequence at the left and right margins of the central fold.

General de Gaulle thanks her : "I was very touched by the birthday wishes you thought to send me...". He shares the same considerations as his correspondent concerning the role that France must embody on the political level : "You know that, on this matter, my feelings are yours and that, despite the powerlessness and baseness of the present, I do not...

First edition, one of 110 numbered copies on vergé pur fil d'arches, the most limited deluxe issue.

A blue ballpoint pen mark to the upper cover, spine and boards lightly and partially sunned, as is often the case.
Untrimmed copy with wide margins, illustrated throughout.
A typed letter of thanks from Pierre Clostermann, signed by him and addressed to Henri Torrès, bound to the left margin of the half-title page.

Our copy exceptionally contains two original watercolours (14 x 10.5 cm) depicting two R.A.F. bomber aircraft flown by Pierre Clostermann: the Vickers-Armstrong "Wellington" and the Bristol...

Original albumen print photograph of Charles de Gaulle, wearing the Cross of Lorraine and the insignia of the Free French Forces, likely taken shortly after the Liberation. Studio stamp of Harcourt Paris within the photograph, under mat and light wood frame, with some minor damage to the frame. 

Signed and inscribed by Charles de Gaulle below the portrait: "A M. Jules Guichet / Bien amicalement ! / 19.2.58 / C. de Gaulle". 

Complete anonymous manuscript of 23 pages (plus title page and table), from the first half of the 19th century, entitled: Cap de Bonne Espérance. 1er cahier.

Our manuscript is presented in a navy blue half shagreen folder, marbled paper boards, housed in a slipcase edged with navy blue shagreen, marbled paper boards.

An account of a stopover at the Cape, a city under British rule, which, according to the anonymous author, retains many traces of its Dutch past.

Description of the town, its geographical setting, its buildings, churches and houses, whose cleanliness contrasts with the dirt and the smell of meat prevailing in most of the streets.

This...

Four-page manuscript in black ink on a folio bifolium (31.9 x 20.1 cm), entitled Compte de dépense & de recette pour l'habitation de Monsieur le Vte de La Bourdonnaye and, on the verso, Etat des naissances de Nègres et mortalités & crues et déficits d'animaux, together with Etat des revenus fabriqués sur l'habitation de Monsieur le Vte de La Bourdonnaye. Signed Pérès and Grasset frères, Pitteu & Cie, certified at Verrettes and Saint-Marc on 30 June 1785.

Eighteenth-century manuscript (second half), comprising 258 foliated pages.

Contemporary binding, expertly restored in full tan calf, with a smooth spine adorned with gilt compartments and decorative gilt tooling, some now faded; signs of rubbing; title label missing; gilt rampant lion at the centre of both boards; handmade paper endpapers and pastedowns; gilt double fillets on board edges; corners slightly worn.

Notable manuscript featuring extracts and summaries of orders and dispatches issued by the Ministry of the Navy during the Regency and the first year of Louis XV’s reign.

Collated from original documents, carefully dated and with folio references, these...

Manuscript of unnumbered leaves comprising a digest of ordinances and regulations relating to the French naval troops, most promulgated between 1690 and 1751.

The manuscript is preserved in its original stitched wrappers, in contemporary paper covers with manuscript annotations; tears to the opening leaves affecting the text; housed in a cream card portfolio. 

It contains: Royal regulation of 1690 concerning the levy, pay and discipline of the naval troops. – Royal regulation of 1691 governing the billeting, conduct, march, policing and discipline of the naval troops. – Royal ordinances of 1695 and 1700 on the policing and discipline of the compagnies franches. – Ordinance of...

Fine contemporary manuscript plan in colour depicting the region (now within the Var department) extending from Le Thouar in the north to the Château Sainte-Marguerite in the south, of considerable strategic importance as the eastern defensive line protecting the approaches to Toulon.

Fold marks without tears or loss.

Fine hand-coloured manuscript plan depicting the area (now in the Var department) situated north of the village of La Valette (today La Valette-du-Var), extending to the lower slopes of Mont Coudon (702 m).

Creasing to the manuscript sheet.

Manuscript drawing consisting of a coloured sketch of one of the fort’s bastions, with scale in toises.

Construction of the Fort de Lamalgue, situated on the hill of the same name and intended to secure the landward approaches to Toulon while also protecting Fort Saint-Louis (Mourillon), which had been bombarded and abandoned during the siege of 1707, began in 1764 under the direction of Milet de Monville.

Works continued until 1792.

Traces of folding to the sheet.

Unpublished manuscript comprising 17 original signed and captioned watercolours executed in 1873 by a certain A. Poquet, an illustrator whose name has not been traced in the principal artists' dictionaries. The work announced on the calligraphic title page, Vues et types du Sénégal (Views and Types of Senegal), appears never to have been published; these watercolours almost certainly constitute the original maquette, or preparatory artwork, intended for its illustration.

The volume comprises a calligraphic title leaf, with a table of plates on the verso, followed by thirteen leaves on which the seventeen watercolours are mounted, one or two to a page...

Contemporary manuscript copy of the important unpublished memoir written in Tonkin in 1841 by the Spanish Dominican Domingo Martí (1811–1852), devoted to the lives and martyrdom of twenty-seven Servants of God who died between 1838 and 1840 during the anti-Christian persecutions carried out under the reign of Emperor Minh Mạng.

Small quarto (15 × 19.8 cm). 6 unnumbered leaves, 2 blank leaves, 117 numbered leaves with a few pagination errors...

Unpublished manuscript logbook kept by a French naval officer, an eyewitness to the celebrated action between the Aréthuse and HMS Amelia (1813), and to the campaigns that accompanied the restoration of French authority in the West Indies.

Unpublished autograph manuscript of 189 pages (the first 31 paginated, the remainder unnumbered), kept by an anonymous French naval officer and covering, without interruption, the period from 25 November 1812 to 4 May 1823.

Contemporary half tan calf, smooth spine decorated with repeated gilt rolls and naval ornaments, burgundy calf lettering-piece, brown paper-covered boards. Spine...

Bristol bearing the letterhead of the Presidency of the Republic of Tunisia.

Name and printed designation on the card.

A fine example.

Manuscript signature of Habib Bourguiba in green ink.

Provenance: from the collection of the distinguished autograph collector Claude Armand.

Original black and white photograph depicting Boris Yegorov in flight suit.

A fine copy.

Rare autograph of Boris Yegorov in blue ink in the left margin of the photograph.

On 12 October 1964, aboard Voskhod 1, Boris Yegorov made his sole flight as a physician, participating in the first mission in history to carry three crew members.

Provenance: from the collection of the renowned autograph collector Claude Armand.

Original black and white photograph, issued in a limited edition of 50 numbered prints, depicting Andrian Grigorievitch Nikolaïev during his visit to Switzerland in July 1971.

A fine copy. Printed stamps on the verso identifying the cosmonaut, the date of his visit to Switzerland, the numbering of the print (10/50), and the name of the "Boutique russe" in Geneva.

Boldly signed by Andrian Grigorievitch Nikolaïev in blue felt-tip pen in the lower left corner of the print.

Andrian Grigorievitch Nikolaïev was part of the very first group of Soviet cosmonauts selected in

Original black and white photograph depicting Moshe Dayan in a frontal pose, looking to his left.

Envelope and a printed sheet inscribed: "STATE OF ISRAEL with the compliments of The Minister of Defense" enclosed.

Signed by Moshe Dayan in blue ballpoint pen at the foot of the portrait.

Provenance: from the collection of the renowned autograph collector Claude Armand.

Autograph letter dated and signed by Georges Dumézil to Thierry Maulnier—though not referred to by name—four pages on a bifolium written in blue ballpoint pen on stationery bearing the letterhead of the Académie française, discussing his recent work "Le dieu masqué".

Rust marks from a paperclip visible at the top of the leaves.

Georges Dumézil expresses agreement with the views of his fellow Immortal: "Je reconnais pour moi cet agnoticisme indulgent (156 - 787) ce scepticisme sans découragement dans son 'léger sourire' (324, - et la fin de 604, 611...) [...] Le Dieu masqué suppose un dieu, ou l'équivalent. Je pense moi, au conte d'Edgar Poe, 'Le...

Complete autograph manuscript in French by Anatole France, 7 pages in black ink on 7 leaves and a signed autograph note on a bifolium.

Complete and extensively corrected speech by Anatole France, on the occasion of a banquet given in his honor in London. The future Nobel Prize winner for Literature delivers a passionate appeal for peace between nations and an ode to England - its philosophy, literature and politics - less than a year before WW1.

The writer offered this manuscript with a signed note: “Keep, dear colleague and friend, keep these leaves of paper if they are of any value to you. Anatole France London, December 12, 1913”.

Very important and last remaining archives in private hands, including autograph manuscripts, typescripts, corrected proofs, offprints, first editions, etc.

Exceptional collection of manuscript and printed archives – the last in private hands – of the founder of liberalism and modern economics, Léon Walras, preserved and annotated by his most prominent scholar William Jaffé. One of the 5 most important sets of personal archives belonging to Walras, considered by Schumpeter “the greatest of all economists”.

This collection of 42 important documents, including complete autograph manuscripts, corrected proofs, abundantly annotated offprints...

Autograph letter dated and signed by Jacques Mesrine, dated Saturday September 22, 1976, 67 lines in blue ink on one page recto verso addressed to his love of the time, Jeanne Schneider, thanks to whom the manuscript of Instinct de mort was discreetly smuggled out of prison.
Jacques Mesrine, then incarcerated at Fleury-Mérogis prison and deprived of human warmth, is enthusiastic about all the visits he receives in the visiting room, thus dispelling the myth of the antisocial bandit devoid of human feelings: "And after that they'll say I'm a savage! No, quite the contrary, and people who have had contact with me want to...

Autograph letter signed by Marshal Davout to his wife, Aimée Leclerc. Two and a half pages in black ink on a double sheet. Fold marks inherent to mailing.
Very likely unpublished letter ("the intimate correspondence of Marshal Davout ceases from August to November [1807]" incorrectly states the Marquise de Blocqueville in Le Maréchal Davout, prince d'Eckmühl, raconté par les siens et par lui-même) addressed to his beloved wife, sister-in-law of Pauline Bonaparte. Settled in his palace halfway between Warsaw and Łódź, Davout, now Governor General of the Duchy of Warsaw, longs for his wife and their property in...

Autograph letter signed by Marshal Davout, then Governor General of Poland, addressed to his wife Aimée Leclerc, sister-in-law of Pauline Bonaparte. Three pages in black ink on a double sheet, with his autograph address on the verso, as well as the stamp of the Grande Armée, and a broken wax seal, armorial with the cipher "LD" on grand mantle and Marshal's batons under crown. 
Tears from opening affecting two words on the third page.
After Davout's brilliant personal victory at Auerstedt, the battles of Jena, Eylau and Friedland which ended the war against the fourth coalition, Davout reaps the fruits of his success. Covered...

Autograph letter dated and signed by Henri II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé and father of the Grand Condé, 2 pages on one sheet, 27 lines in black ink.
Minor restorations and dampstain to left margin of the sheet. Discreet annotation by a former owner at head of verso of the letter.
Although he acknowledges the full atrocity of the crime perpetrated by sieur Cardinet against the person of the son of one of the most important magistrates of the city of Bourges, Henri II undertakes to intervene in favor of the assassin: "... l'action qui sest passee a Bourges est très méchante estant un assassinat très inhumain fait en plein jour contre le fils dun des...

"Ce soir je suis très mal foutu... il est 19 heures et je me couche juste après la fin de ta lettre... de rien de grave... juste une grande fatigue (à rien faire)" ["Tonight I feel really awful... it's 7 PM and I'm going to bed...