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Premium Maître Pierre TURPIN

307 - Victor HUGO (1802–1885) – Signed autograph letter to the Bel…
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Estimate €500 - €600
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Description
Victor HUGO (1802–1885) – Signed autograph letter to the Belgian poet and journalist Charles Potvin (1818–1902). 2 pp. ½ in-8. Hauteville House, Saturday 23 June [1860]. Address on the reverse with postmarks. Letter written after the speech he delivered in Jersey, five years after his expulsion, calling for support for Garibaldi. ‘My eloquent and dear colleague, I seem to recall reading, a few months ago, in the National itself, that you are no longer its editor-in-chief. Please accept, however, that in the absence of our French friends who have left Brussels, I am writing to you to clarify a few useful details. Up until today, Thursday 21 June, the National has made no mention of what took place in Jersey on the 14th. However, as early as the 15th, and again the following day, the 16th, the five or six English or French newspapers containing the meeting and my speech were bound, stamped and sent by me to the National. Two Paris newspapers published the speech on Wednesday, and by the following day, Thursday, they had been notified. The National’s silence is puzzling our friends. I explain it quite naturally, in case the newspapers I sent passed through Calais and were intercepted by the honest French police. In that case, please be so kind as to explain the matter on my behalf to our friends at the National. I would not want them to think I had forgotten them. Absolute cordiality is the foundation of republican brotherhood. Moreover, this concerns a matter of greater importance than ourselves; it concerns the triumph of our ideas. The Empire, by issuing a furious warning against my speech in Jersey, has acted foolishly. It has laid bare its secret and deep-seated hatred of the Italian movement and its terror of the upheaval that is about to begin. Moreover, it has foolishly acted as its own mouthpiece, thereby doubling the impact of the speech. I have received a letter from Paris from which I quote this line: ‘The issues of L’Opinion Nationale and Le Courrier de Paris containing the warning were selling for up to five francs yesterday, Thursday.’ You have given a lecture in Brussels whose success has delighted me. I send you my warmest regards. Victor Hugo. I am again posting the Guernsey Gazette (issues of 16 and 23 June) today for the National. Should my speech be reproduced, please be so kind as to tell our friends that it should be taken from the Jersey and Guernsey newspapers I have sent, rather than from the French newspapers, which must have omitted certain passages—a precaution that did not save them from a warning.” Expert firm: Emmanuel Lorient of Traces écrites in Paris
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About the sale Part 1: SALE OF TABLES FROM THE CROZANT SCHOOL AND MISCELLANEOUS - Part 2: SALE OF DESIGN FURNITURE AND OBJECTS
Auction location
Auction time 06/26/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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