CHAPTER X

AUTOGRAPH COLLECTING IN FRANCE

Autograph letters of Napoleon—His associates and contemporaries—Other French autographs

The subjects of autograph collecting and autograph dealing in France, as well as the wealth of French literature dealing with the whole subject, and the abundance of collections of facsimiles, have already been incidentally alluded to. The business now carried on by M. NoËl Charavay was founded in 1843 by his father, M. Jacques Charavay, who died in 1867. He was succeeded by his son, Stephen Charavay, who lived till 1899. At his funeral an eloquent address was delivered by M. Anatole France. Five years before the autograph business had been made over by M. Stephen Charavay to his brother, NoËl Charavay, who now carries it on. In 1865 M. Gabriel Charavay, the brother of Jacques Charavay, acquired the goodwill and connection of M. Laverdet, one of the earliest dealers in autographs. His son and successor, EugÈne, died young in 1892, and the head of the house is now the widow of Gabriel Charavay. Monthly catalogues are issued by both firms under the respective titles of Bulletin d'Autographes and Revue des Autographes. The first publication is now (1910) in its 63rd, the other in its 45th year. Autograph collectors would do well to study both, as English letters are frequently offered for sale in them, and the price of Napoleonic MSS. and similar rariora is, as a rule, much less in England than in France. I strongly recommend beginners in autograph collecting to carefully read the introduction to the fine Bovet catalogue, afterwards published as a pamphlet by M. Stephen Charavay. The four volumes, entitled "L'Isographie des Hommes CÉlÈbres," are of inestimable use in acquiring familiarity with the handwriting of celebrated French men and women. M. Jacques Charavay and his sons are responsible as "experts" (and in France autograph "experts" have an official character) for the compilation of nearly the whole of the elaborate catalogues of autograph sales which have taken place in Paris since 1843. The solitary exception to this assertion is the sale of the MSS. of Madame RÉcamier. It was Jacques Charavay and his two successors who presided over the dispersals of the autograph collections formed in succession by Brunet, YÉmeniz, Fillon, Bovet, Piot, Champfleury, Pichon, and Dablin.[63] A list of these catalogues down to 1902 was prepared by M. Edmund BrÉbion and published. It is already out of print.

Of Napoleon I. as a scribe my friend Dr. J. Holland Rose writes me as follows:—

I have already mentioned[64] the seven Napoleon letters sold in London in 1904 for £350. In the following year I was much interested in three letters which M. NoËl Charavay offered for sale at the modest price of £100, throwing light on certain negotiations between Bonaparte and the Bourbons, which supplement a curt letter of the former in the Morrison Collection declining to entertain certain proposals. The three letters sold in 1905 are in the easily recognisable handwriting of Louis XVIII. (known in 1801, when they were written, as the Comte de Lille), and in them he puts before the AbbÉ de Montesquieu, who was acting as a go-between in the matter, the reasons which should induce the First Consul to facilitate the return of the descendant of St. Louis to the throne of his forefathers. In the first of the series (dated Warsaw, March 22, 1801) Louis congratulates himself on the idea which has prompted him to take the initiative in the matter. He writes as follows: "Buonaparte is to-day the greatest of our country's soldiers. He will be her saviour. As the Father of the French it is for me to make the first advance.... I charge you to communicate to him the following arguments: the restoration of the Monarchy is necessary; the existence of the Republic has only proved its impossibility; the only Republicans in France are abstract reasoners, faddists, &c." In a last and final memorandum he says: "When I appeal to Buonaparte, do I do so merely to march over the bodies of the dead? If glory has chosen him to restore the Monarchy, let glory be the witness of my engagements." At the same time he energetically denies the allegation that he has ever encouraged or approved any project for the assassination of the First Consul.

In February of the present year I saw in London a superb Napoleonic letter of great historic importance, and authenticated by a declaration made by the Duke of Wellington. This letter once belonged to an English Prime Minister. It was written on May 1, 1803, when the delusive Treaty (or Truce) of Amiens was about to be torn up. A part of the letter has appeared, but I now give it in extenso with a translation[65]:—

[Translation.]

This letter was purchased by the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, whose attention I called to its great interest. Lord Crawford probably possesses one of the finest sets of Revolutionary and Napoleonic MSS. in the hands of any private collector. He is at the present moment engaged in cataloguing them.

Of the various autographs of Napoleon in my own collection, the earliest (now reproduced) is dated February 1, 1796. Napoleon then signed himself "Buonaparte." He was then Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Interior. The last I possess consist of a note in pencil written at St. Helena and the various hieroglyphics with which he controlled the entries in Pierron's journal of household disbursements. All the autographs of the Bonaparte family fetch high prices, especially letters of Madame MÈre (Napoleon's mother), Josephine and Marie Louise (his wives), and the sisters Eliza, Pauline, and Caroline. Letters of his father are now extremely difficult to obtain, although ten years ago they fetched only from £1 to £2. Letters of Talleyrand are not rare, but the one I now place before my readers possesses both exceptional interest and value.

Talleyrand to Napoleon I.

[Translation.]

In this letter, dated April 20, 1808, Talleyrand conveys to the Emperor, then at Bayonne, his congratulations on the birth of the future Emperor, Napoleon III., at which he was present, and it must have been written the very day when that event took place. In his "Life of Napoleon III.," at page 10, the late Mr. Archibald Forbes writes thus: "It was on the afternoon of April 20, 1808, in her hÔtel in the Rue CÉrutti, now the banking-house of the Rothschilds in the Rue Lafitte, that Queen Hortense gave birth to her third son, the future Napoleon III. The Empress was then at Bordeaux and the Emperor at Bayonne. Talleyrand, with other high officers, had been commanded by Napoleon to be present at the impending accouchement of Queen Hortense. She thus notes regarding him: 'The visit of M. de Talleyrand aggravated my nervous state. He constantly wore powder, the scent of which was so strong that when he approached me I was nearly suffocated.' Talleyrand looked down solemnly on the new-born infant; some thirty years later, in Lady Tankerville's drawing-room in London, he did not choose to recognise the son of Hortense. The heir of the Empire was then an exile, and Talleyrand was serving a new master."

I possess letters and documents signed by Napoleon in Egypt (1798-99), at Rambouillet (1807), at Bayonne (1808), and on a pardon (1812). Possibly the finest is on a letter written in 1805 from the camp at Boulogne. I paid £5 for this; it is worth at least five times as much now. Letters of most of Napoleon's Marshals vary in value from 10s. to 20s. The rarest are those of Desaix (killed at Marengo) and Poniatowski (drowned in the Elster in 1813). They are worth from £3 to £5. An autograph letter of the Duc d'Enghien would probably bring its owner £20. I gave £5 for a good L.S. Letters of Murat are worth from 15s. to 20s. I bought the letter written to Napoleon by him for 12s. 6d. in England. Letters of Eliza Bonaparte and Marshal MassÉna are now somewhat hard to procure, as those of the former are purchased by an historian, while the present holder of the title of the Prince d'Essling is credited with being a liberal buyer of the MSS. of his gallant ancestor.

As regards the Roi de Rome (Napoleon II.), I have already referred to his exercise-books. If he had lived he would have had a rival in the Comte de Chambord, of whose early compositions I now give an example. His handwriting was excellent. Few boys at eight write anything like as well:—

Exercise of Count de Chambord, 1820-83.

Nearly half a century later the writer preferred to lose his chances of a throne rather than renounce the white flag of his ancestors. If I mistake not he used the very words of Francis I. recorded on the copy-book page now in my possession!

Ordinary letters of Napoleon III. and the Empress EugÉnie are priced at figures varying from £l to £5. Like Napoleon I., the heir to the Napoleonic traditions was an industrious letter-writer. I possess many examples of his letters, ranging from 1830 to 1870. Here is one written during his detention in Germany:—

Autograph letters of the Prince Imperial fetch very high prices indeed—anything from £5 upwards. The fine essay written by him at the Royal Military College, Woolwich, is worth quite twice that sum.

Letters of the Empress EugÉnie are now generally priced higher than those of her husband, and I have known as much as £10 asked for one. Her Majesty is, or was, a zealous collector of autographs. Twenty years ago she was credited with possessing several letters of Catherine of Aragon, and a letter from Henry VII. to King and Queen Ferdinand and Isabella, of the highest historical importance.

Fine letters of Louis XVIII., Charles X., and Louis Philippe can be obtained for a pound or less, and the correspondence of the statesmen who served under them is even cheaper. I gave 20 francs for a very confidential letter written to the last-named monarch by Count MolÉ (1781-1853) in July, 1835. It begins thus:—

At this point he suddenly drops the subject, and enlarges on certain gossip from the German Courts and the lack of intelligence shown by the War Minister, General Bernard.

The official letters of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods are often distinguished by engraved vignettes of great artistic beauty. The designs of the earlier ones are often classical. The letters of naval officers are often headed by a medallion on which a Roman galley figures conspicuously. It was by carefully studying the sale catalogues that I obtained the letter of Talleyrand to Napoleon at an outlay of 27 francs. For 52 francs I purchased in the open market one of the earliest official letters of Villeneuve to the Minister of Marine at Paris, after the battle of the Nile.

Some of the autographs of the Revolution fetch very high prices. Letters of Mirabeau are comparatively cheap, but those of the Robespierres and Anacharsis Cloots command almost as much as those of Montesquieu. Letters of Madame Roland and Marat are also much in request. Autographs of Charlotte Corday are probably more valuable than those of Marie Antoinette.

In the early part of the nineteenth century MSS. of every description were sold at prices which now seem incredible. Miss Berry tells us that the "Deffand collection of letters and documents consisting of 1 folio of oeuvres de Boufflers; 1 do. of letters from different persons; 2 do. of letters from Voltaire to Madame de Deffand; 1 do. Journal of do.; 1 do. divers ouvrages of do.; 5 large bundles of manuscript papers; 1 packet containing several hundred letters from Voltaire, Rousseau, Delille, Montesquieu, de StaËl, Walpole, Henault, and 7 large packets containing 800 letters from Madame de Deffand to Horace Walpole were sold in one lot to Dyce Sombre for £157." Lucky Nabob! I may say without indiscretion that the single letter from Napoleon to Talleyrand mentioned at the opening of this chapter obtained a better price. Letters of Voltaire are worth from £1 to £5 each. I gave 10 francs for the apothecary's account for the embalming of his body prior to its inhumation in the Pantheon. The following letter in English from Voltaire to Lord Chesterfield—certainly a rarity—cost me £3 3s.:—

Voltaire to the Earl of Chesterfield.

The original spelling of the letter has been preserved.

It is needless to discuss the value of such priceless treasures as the autographs of Rabelais and MoliÈre, the subjects of so much discussion and (if truth be told) so much deception. Like the signatures of Shakespeare, they may be described as the Koh-i-noors of calligraphy. They do not come within the domain of practical autograph collecting.