NAPOLEON III (LOUIS-NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, FUTURE). - Lot 9

Lot n° 9
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600 - 800 EUR
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Result : 1 417EUR
NAPOLEON III (LOUIS-NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, FUTURE). - Lot 9
NAPOLEON III (LOUIS-NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, FUTURE). Autograph letter signed "Napoléon-L. B.". TO LOUIS BONAPARTE. Château d'Arenenberg, December 8, 1834. 2 pp. 3/4 in-8, address on back, wax seal with imperial arms, marginal tear due to opening affecting one word. "I have received your letter announcing the sale of the villa; although the sum given is not considerable, I am nevertheless delighted, as it gives me the means to make some purchase here that occupies and interests me. You tell me that I owe Charlotte [Joseph Bonaparte's daughter] a few hundred piasters, but you know that I don't recognize this debt, which comes from a parsimonious idea that occurred to my uncle Joseph the day before I left London. It seems to me that to save expenses, it would be less costly to send directly to Mr. Macaire at Constances [Jean-Jacques Macaire, or his son David, bankers to Queen Hortense and the future Napoleon III] the payments due from the sale, but you will know that better than I do. I thought I had already acknowledged receipt of the vermeil set you sent me by Auguste. I would also like to thank you for the books I received from you, which gave me great pleasure. ALTHOUGH I AM VERY STUDIOUS AND WORK ALMOST ALL DAY. MY WORK IS PROGRESSING ONLY SLIGHTLY; IT IS INDEED... UN TRAVAIL IMMENSE QUE J'AI ENTREPRIS et qui demande de grandes recherches et une grande persévérance [probably his Manuel de l'artillerie, to be published in Zurich in 1836]. You must congratulate yourself doubly for having always been opposed to my marriage plans since you saw what lightness and carelessness father and daughter put into forging new bonds. I AM TRULY HAPPY TO HAVE ESCAPED A MARRIAGE THAT WOULD HAVE BROUGHT ME UNENVIABLE ALLIANCES AND A WOMAN OF ZERO SPIRIT AND CHARACTER. [In 1834, Marie-Louise Antoinette Arrgighi de Casanova, daughter of the Duke of Padua, had planned to marry Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, but the latter, who was not in love with her, gave up the idea, and the young woman married Édouard-James Thayer shortly afterwards]. Mama had thought of spending two winter months in Geneva to bring some distraction from the monotony of winter life in the country; I hope we will go again at the end of January, although my mother always postpones her plans from month to month. I KNOW MANY DISTINGUISHED PEOPLE IN GENEVA, SUCH AS MR SISMONDI, DUFOUR, PICTET... [the historian and economist Jean-Charles Léonard Simonde de Sismondi, the general and engineer Guillaume-Henri Dufour, the philosopher, philologist and military engineer Adolphe Pictet], and I would be delighted to see French Switzerland, which I know nothing about. Adieu, mon cher papa, receive the assurance of my sincere attachment. Your tenderly respectful son..." Arenenberg was Queen Hortense's home after the Empire. Her son, the future Napoleon III, spent part of his childhood there and later bought it back. The Prince Imperial and Empress Eugenie spent their summer vacations here from 1873 to 1878.
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