Autograph letter signed by Honoré de Balzac to Gustave Silbermann, dated 18 May [1846], with the blind stamp of the Hôtel des Trois Rois in Basel. A delicate document, with fold marks that have caused some tears with some minute lacks of paper, affecting a few letters, including the last two letters of the author's signature.
A fine epistolary testament to Balzac's unrestrained passion for art collecting, in this likely unpublished letter addressed to his friend, the Strasbourg bookseller and printer Gustave Silbermann. Balzac was planning a stay in Strasbourg, during which he became engaged to Madame Hanska.

Exhausted by the frantic pace of writing La Comédie Humaine, Balzac set out to leave Paris for an extended tour of Europe. "On 25 March 1846, Balzac joined Mme Hanska in Rome, where he had never been before, and was dazzled by the city. In Rome, then in Civitavecchia, Genoa, and all along the way back to Basel via Lake Maggiore, the Simplon, and Geneva, they bought paintings, works of art, furniture," Balzac continuing "with determination the creation of his interior décor" (M. Maximovitch, Honoré de Balzac et Mme Hanska, French Embassy in Ukraine). A year later, he would publish Le Cousin Pons—arguably the finest literary expression of this passion, in which the art collection is steeped into every page and the protagonist suffers from what Balzac himself called "bricabracomania."

Writing from Basel, Balzac still hoped to make further acquisitions in Strasbourg, where he refers here to a "painting collection advertised in the newspapers on rue du Vieux Marché." It was for Madame Hanska that Balzac intensified his activities during this period, "driven by a genuine frenzy for acquisition. It was the time when he was preparing the home he had purchased on rue Fortunée (now rue Balzac) for his future wife. Even before moving in, from 15 April 1847 onwards, he was antiquing everywhere, placing orders, and enthusiastically pursuing real or imagined bargains." (Nicole Mozet, Balzac collectionneur). This stay in Strasbourg would prove pivotal in their relationship, as Balzac would later confide to his sister that they had made their engagement official there, years before their long overdue marriage: "we were engaged from 1846 in Strasbourg" (letter of 15 March 1850). In the same letter, Balzac also asks Silbermann to arrange his transportation—this loyal friend even supported Balzac in his relationship with his future wife: "Should Countess Hanska pass through Strasbourg during a journey, it is this devoted friend [Silbermann] who is entrusted with delivering her a letter from her lover, ensuring the comfort of her stay, tending to her needs, and even taking care of her travel provisions." (Yves Cambefort).

An unpublished moment in the life of Balzac, the ‘tableaumaniac’, as he travels to Strasbourg to seal his union with his great love.

"I am counting on your kindness to reserve a seat for me in the mail coach to Strasbourg from the 25th of this month—not earlier; later is no problem so long as I’ve departed before the 31st. Pay for the seat if necessary and I will reimburse you when I pass through […] Write me a note in Heidelberg at the Hôtel de la Cour de Bade to let me know on which day the seat will be booked […] If the painting collection advertised in the newspapers on rue du Vieux Marché is still for sale […]"