COIGNY Anne-Françoise-Aimée de Franquetot, marquise de (1769-1820).

Lot 18
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2500 - 3000 EUR
COIGNY Anne-Françoise-Aimée de Franquetot, marquise de (1769-1820).
Letters from the Marquise de Coigny and some other persons belonging to the French society of the end of the XVIIIth century. A rare copy with letters from the author, the prefacer and a collector. One volume in-8 (3 ff. bl. de garde) faux-titre, portrait front. [4], IV, 320 pp. etched frontispiece portrait of the author, signed by "Ad Lalauze" with serpente. - Full midnight blue morocco, spine with five raised bands, gilt title, roulette on the edges, gilt edge, full red morocco counter-board, double fillet with a large ornamental roulette, midnight blue morocco flap with four fillets and roulettes, combed paper guard, combed paper case. XXth Jansenist binding, signed E. Rau St Petersburg. Very good condition. Beautiful work on Holland, numbered 62 and filled with 6 autograph letters signed and an autograph note. Very interesting work with handwritten corrections on several pages: page 1, entitled, Notice sur la Marquise de Coigny and p 67 in the notes. Two leaves have been added to this copy before pages 69 and 99 and have allowed to present more consequent corrections, even to reformulate entirely certain notes. The autograph letters that abound in this work are of two kinds: Between pages 114 and 115, we find an autograph letter signed and autograph note from Gabriel Hanotaux as well as a letter from Paul Lacroix dealing with the work. The first letter of Gabriel Hanotaux, tells the history of this book "It had been sent to me by Prince Lobanoff who was my friend of long date (...) to thank Prince Lobanoff, I had bought the curious original letters of Aimée de Coigny to Maillat Garat of whom she was the mistress and I intended to give them to him when he would accompany the Emperor Nicolas to Paris. He died just as he was boarding the train to Vienna. (...) I kept the letters. I communicated them to Et. Lamy when he wrote his book on Aimée de Coigny: but they frightened him a little. (...) I communicated these precious letters to Charles Leger who published them in his book: Captives of Love, published in 1933. The note written by Gabriel Hanotaux is entitled "La jeune Captive", title of the ode to Aimée de Coigny written in July 1794, by André Chénier during his imprisonment at Saint Lazare. Gabriel Hanotaux quotes a passage from a letter from Sophie Gay to Mme Desbordes-Valmore which paints a portrait of Aimée de Coigny " (...) she wanted to be loved without sharing, and he shared himself you know, the whole hell is in this small difference of thinking ". Finally, an autograph letter signed by Paul Lacroix addressed to Baron [Jérôme] Pichon, (s.l.) July 16, 1884, 1 p. in-8 bifeuillet. This letter probably accompanied the personal copy of the Baron. This letter explains in detail the distribution of the different printings (Whatmann, Holland. Printings for France and Russia...) "(...) There will be thus, in France, 27 or 28 copies numbered by the printer, and offered, on behalf of the unknown and strictly anonymous author according to an approved and signed list. It will be a really rare book. That is what we wanted. (...) " On the second page of this letter an autograph note signed by Gabriel Hanotaux " letter addressed to Baron Pichon and which was given to me by M. S. Vicaire on November 1, 1897. The "Lord and Master" mentioned is Prince Lobanoff. At the end of the book we count four autograph letters signed by Aimée, to Maillia-Garat, (s.l.n.d.). 5 pages and a half in-8. Moving correspondence in which her passionate love shows through "I embrace you dear Maillia, I love you, you are my husband, my friend, the companion of my life of which you make the charm and the happiness. (...)" or again "(...) we will not be before the 30th in Paris, but then reunited for life, no more reason, no more pretext to tear our existence into two parts like in this moment (...)". Provenance : ex-libris of Paul Baudouin on the front cover.
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