Lot n° 257
Estimation :
400 - 600
EUR
LOUIS (PHILIPPE VII), prince d'Orléans, comte de Paris (1838 - Lot 257
LOUIS (PHILIPPE VII), prince d'Orléans, comte de Paris (1838-1894)
Set of 12 L.A.S: "L P d'Orléans", Cannes, Eu, Paris, Glenspean, dated March 26, 1882 to August 24, 1886, on letterheads for Villa St Jean in Cannes, Château d'Eu, 57 rue de Varenne, 40 pages, addressed to his aunt Princess Clementine of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1817-1907), text in French, creases, foxing, but overall good condition.
- March 26, 1882: "My dear aunt, Ferdinand [Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha], has just given Isabelle and me the precious pictures drawn by Amélie [Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1848-1875)]. The thought is very beautiful and touching. I thank you most sincerely for sending us these souvenirs. I think the stay in Cannes will do Ferdinand good. He needs to forget his health sometimes. I do my best to distract him and we go on great botanical explorations together. But I'm sorry you couldn't decide to come back to Cannes. The first moment would have been painful, but it would have been good for you afterwards. I'm delighted to hear that Philippe and Louise are coming here. It will be a great joy for us to see them; but I regret not being able to accommodate them under our roof. As the visitors' rooms are not yet habitable, we have only one room available, Ferdinand's, as my son is due to arrive on Saturday and occupy the one Mummy has at the moment. If Philippe and Louise happen to be in Genoa on Friday 31st, they should ask the Duchess of Galliera for lunch. We'll have lunch at her house in the Palais Ferrari that day at half past eleven (...)". - June 26, 1882: "I take the liberty of addressing you as the only person who can, I believe, help me in an important search. It concerns finding a German valet for my son. He has learned English from the maids, so he needs someone to speak German with him all the time. The college courses are insufficient. I'm all the more anxious to talk to you as I would very much like to have an Austrian. I prefer the minor inconvenience of the accent to the greater inconvenience of having a subject of Kaiser Wilhelm. Besides, I think Austrian servants are safer and better behaved than those of the German Empire (...)". - July 12, 1882: "(...), I would be happy to meet Baron Pack, he is going this year to the maneuvers of the 3rd Corps which I am to follow as territorial Lieutenant-Colonel, but I confess that I would rather have verbal relations with him than epistolary commerce, for I had a prodigious difficulty in deciphering his handwriting and ended up copying his note in a legible manner to grasp its meaning. (...) The new valet probably doesn't know a word of French, so he won't be able to start work straight away. This service consists not only in dressing and caring for my son, but also in serving the small table in the rue de Babylone on his own. Here's how things are arranged. In the house at the end of the Duchesse de Galliera's garden, I have organized the entire establishment of M. Laurent's family with my son. My son lives with this family. As long as he lives there, a cook of mine, at my expense, cooks for everyone, and my son's valet serves at table (...) To familiarize himself with this service, as well as the language, I would take him for the start here in the Château d'Eu house, having him serve at table as my wife's valet, and with me to answer him in German for the start. He'll have to learn a bit of French, but with my son he'll only have to speak German. The conditions would be one hundred francs a month, i.e. 1,200 francs a year, plus 41 frs 50 a month, i.e. 500 frs a year for clothing, in return for which he must always have clean black clothing for service. No livery, as he is dressed in black. New Year's gifts on January 1. After two years' service, I'd raise it to 110 frs a month, or 1320 frs a year, the current rate for a valet de chambre. Of course, housed, heated, lit and fed at the first service table. That, my dear Aunt, is just about all we need to move the business forward (...)". - August 10, 1882: "(...), you will have learned with pleasure that my son won first prize in Latin version at the Collège Stanislas. I am delighted, and hope he will continue in this vein (...)". - August 27, 1882: "(...) I am very touched to see that in the midst of all your sadness you have thought of my 44th birthday and this anniversary of August 24, which takes you back to times already long gone? I'm delighted with the good news you've given me about Amélie and her children. Here too, the whooping coughs are getting better, although they're not over yet. Little Louise, for
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