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[Literature] Trophime-Gérard, Marquis de Lally-Tollendal (1751–1830), politician, great orator of the Revolution and the Restoration, Peer of France and member of the Académie française Set of 4 autograph items (2 letters and 2 notes) Son of the famous and ill-fated General Lally, who was executed under Louis XV and whose reputation he spent his youth seeking to restore, Lally-Tollendal was an active member of the Estates-General of 1789 (a supporter of an English-style monarchy) before emigrating during the Reign of Terror. On his return to France, he became a Peer of France and was elected to the Académie Française in 1816. These letters perfectly illustrate his character: a man of immense erudition (a polyglot, quoting Virgil, the Bible in Latin and British history), endowed with a highly sensitive nature (he suffered from ‘nerves’), an admitted tendency towards procrastination (‘the demon of procrastination’ which he shared with Gibbon) but a profound loyalty in friendship. Letter from the author, Auteuil, 30 October 1819, addressed to François-Just-Marie Raynouard, Permanent Secretary of the Académie française, 1¼ pages, quarto; Lally-Tollendal, elected to seat 31 in 1816, discusses his participation in the sessions of this illustrious institution. An early émigré to England, he proposes to read to his colleagues selected passages which he had translated himself during his exile, at the request of his illustrious British friends (the statesman Charles James Fox and Lord Glenbervie). He mentions his verse translations of Alexander Pope’s ‘Universal Prayer’ and, most notably, the famous scene between Othello and Iago from Shakespeare’s play, bearing witness to the major role played by émigrés in the dissemination of Shakespearean drama in France at the dawn of Romanticism. The letter concludes with a delightful, erudite and Celtic digression on the origins of his Irish family. Autograph letter, Auteuil, 26 May 1822, from a Swiss nobleman: ‘my young and kind protector’, 4 pages in-4 A long letter written in a vibrant and passionate style, composed at a time of intense political and personal mourning, just a few days after the sudden death of the Prime Minister, the Duke of Richelieu (which occurred on 17 May 1822). In it, the author expresses his deep personal grief at the loss of this faithful friend (“ today we mourn him with tears of blood’) and lambasts the ‘most infamous coalition’ (the alliance of the Liberals and the Ultra-royalists) which overthrew the moderate government. Plunged into deep despondency (‘ ‘I have become a gloomy and silent shell of a man’”), he nevertheless details to his patron his behind-the-scenes political struggle with the new minister, Villèle, to secure justice and financial pensions for the survivors of the Swiss Guards massacred at the Tuileries on 10 August 1792. Lally-Tollendal also announces the imminent publication of his *Journal de Suisse* and his work on the officer Pfyffer of Altishofen (the instigator of the famous Lion Monument in Lucerne). P.A.S., undated, 1 page, in-8 I respectfully comply with the wishes of my Vice-President and my President, who is without vice, by sending him this very brief summary of my ideas, for I am far more in a position to take lessons from him than to offer him advice. Be that as it may, I submit to him what may well be my political codicil, and I take sentimental pride in wishing to place in his library what I might call a more extensive testament. Would His Lordship kindly accept the tribute of all the sentiments which his faithful servant has long held in his regard…
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Auction time 10/08/2026 at 2:00 PM
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