JOSEPHINE (Empress of France and Duchess of Navarre, 1763-1814)
Letter signed "Josephine", addressed to the "Directeur Général des Postes," Malmaison, 12 February 1813.
£2,000
Malmaison n.p.. 1813.
Letter signed "Josephine", addressed to the "Directeur Général des Postes," Malmaison, 12 February 1813.
Text in French. One page, 226 x 185mm (mild creases). Seventy-seven words.
In a nice example of patronage Josephine uses this letter to the Directeur Général des Postes to recommend a young man called Gaulthier for a job within the Post service. She says that if he can agree to this, then it will make two people happy as a job will assist Gaulthier in his marriage to the daughter of a woman in service to Josephine and whose father is "valet de chambre" of the Viceroi. We have been unable to discover if M. Gaulthier was given a job but he had an in with the right person. Josephine, who by this point was no longer married to Napoleon although he had made her the Duchess of Navarre, was the aunt of the wife of the Directeur Général des Postes, Antoine-Marie Chamans, comte de Lavalette so perfectly placed. Sadly, Josephine died of pneumonia the following year so this might have been one of her last acts of high-level string pulling.
Provenance: Christie's, 8 March 1978, lot 34.
Letter signed "Josephine", addressed to the "Directeur Général des Postes," Malmaison, 12 February 1813.
Text in French. One page, 226 x 185mm (mild creases). Seventy-seven words.
In a nice example of patronage Josephine uses this letter to the Directeur Général des Postes to recommend a young man called Gaulthier for a job within the Post service. She says that if he can agree to this, then it will make two people happy as a job will assist Gaulthier in his marriage to the daughter of a woman in service to Josephine and whose father is "valet de chambre" of the Viceroi. We have been unable to discover if M. Gaulthier was given a job but he had an in with the right person. Josephine, who by this point was no longer married to Napoleon although he had made her the Duchess of Navarre, was the aunt of the wife of the Directeur Général des Postes, Antoine-Marie Chamans, comte de Lavalette so perfectly placed. Sadly, Josephine died of pneumonia the following year so this might have been one of her last acts of high-level string pulling.
Provenance: Christie's, 8 March 1978, lot 34.
