Autograph Letters, Manuscripts & Historical Documents
Nov 30, 2022
Urbanizacion El Real del Campanario. E-12, Bajo B 29688 Estepona (Malaga). SPAIN, Spain
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LOT 665:

BALZAC HONORÉ DE: (1799-1850)

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BALZAC HONORÉ DE: (1799-1850)

‘I almost owe him my life’

 

BALZAC HONORÉ DE: (1799-1850) French Novelist and Playwright. Best known for his masterwork novel La Comédie Humaine, a multi-novel collection of novels written over twenty years. A very fine A.L.S., `de Balzac´, three pages, 8vo, slim paper, Berdychiv, Ukraine, 22nd October 1849, to Charles Sauvageot, in French. At the time of the present letter Balzac was residing at Wierzchownia, in Ukraine, staying at the home of Madame Hanska. Balzac has mandated his correspondent to get him a violin to be offered to Doctor Knothe who had treated him, and having just received the violin, states in part `…enfin à travers tant d´instruments de musique qui ont roulé entre la Gallicie et Vienne, celui-là s´est fait jour et n´a pas souffert, il est venu sain et sauf, et il l´a trouvé parfait, excellentissime, et il a mis l´amateur et collectionneur de violons en goût. Cet artiste est le médecin de la famille au sein de laquelle je vis loin des orages, et je lui dois à peu près la vie, attendu que j´avais une maladie de coeur au plus haut degré don't il m´a délivré; donc, comme je désire moi aussi lui faire un cadeau… si par hasard vous trouvez ou vous entendez parler de quelque chef d´oeuvre de lutherie, vous qui vous y connaissez si bien, pensez à moi, prévenez moi´ (Translation: “…finally, through so many musical instruments that have rolled between Gallicia and Vienna, this one has emerged and has not suffered, it has come safe and sound, and he has found it perfect, excellent, and it appealed to the violin lover and collector. This artist is the doctor of the family with which I live far from the storms, and I owe him almost my life, given that I had a heart disease in the highest degree from which he delivered me; so, as I also want to give him a gift... if by chance you find or hear about some masterpiece of luting making, you who know the matter so well, think of me, let me know”) Balzac says having been delivered from his heart disease, although his health never fully recovered and kept on deteriorating, passing away ten months later. Balzac further refers to his future return to Paris, saying in part `…comme il m´est défendu de monter plus de 20 marches, je me ferai porter par 2 commissionnaires en une façon de palanquin jusque dans votre musée et pour le voir et pour vous voir. J´ai toujours votre fouet cosaque sur ma commode, en sorte que je pensé à vous. Ce que vous m´avez dit de la difficulté de trouver de vrais Palissy, sains et entiers me nâvre. Palissy, Rabelais et Salomon de Caux sans statues, dans un paysqui en élève à Parmentier et à Monge, à Ducange et à Coquille est un fait qui m´irrite et me fait rougir de n´être pas assez riche pour réparer cette ingratitude. Dans tous les cas, le hasard est si grand surtout à Paris, où les voitures ne tuent que 5 ou 6 personnes par an…´ (Translation: “…as I am not allowed to climb more than 20 steps, I will have myself carried by 2 porters in the manner of a palanquin to your museum in order to see it and to see you. I still have your Cossack whip on my dresser, so I thought of you. What you told me about the difficulty of finding real Palissy, healthy and unbroken, saddens me. Palissy, Rabelais and Salomon de Caux without statues, in a country that raises them to Parmentier and Monge, Ducange and Coquille, is a fact that irritates me and makes me blush for not being rich enough to make amends to such ingratitude. In any case, chance is so great, especially in Paris, where cars only kill 5 or 6 people a year…”) Addressed in Balzac´s hand to the fourth page. G to VG

 

Charles Sauvageot (1781-1860) French Violinist and important collector of medieval and Renaissance antiques which he donated to the Louvre. Sauvageot and Balzac shared their passion for Bernard Palissy, a XV century Huguenot potter, engineer and craftsman known for his so-called “rusticware” large oval decorated platters featuring small animals in relief, and who died in the Bastille.

 

In February 1832 Balzac received an intriguing letter from Odessa with no return address and signed simply "L'Étrangère" ("The Foreigner") expressing sadness at the cynicism and atheism in La Peau de Chagrin and its negative portrayal of women. Balzac´s response was to place an advertisement in the Gazette de France, hoping that his anonymous critic would see it. Thus began a fifteen-year correspondence between Balzac and Ewelina Hanska a Polish woman married to a nobleman twenty years her senior. After the death of her husband in 1841, Balzac finally visited Ewelina Hanska in 1843 and won her heart. After a series of financial and health problems, including objections from Tsar Nicholas I, the couple married in 1850 in Saint Petersburg, only few months after the present letter was written. Five months later and three months after returning to Paris, Balzac died.

 


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