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Maître Jean-Paul RENOUD-GRAPPIN

5 - Francesco ANTOMMARCHI (1780–1833), Napoleon’s physician on S…
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Estimate €500 - €700
Sale commission
Description
Francesco ANTOMMARCHI (1780–1833), Napoleon’s physician on St Helena. P.S. at the bottom of a letter addressed to him, Paris, 9 August 1833; 2 pages, in-4. Concerning Napoleon’s death mask. The letter is signed by Marshal CLAUZEL, General Baron DOMMANGET and Lieutenant-General ARRIGHI, Duke of Padua, and concerns ‘the proposal for a fundraising campaign to acquire the original and unique plaster cast or mask, which you had the brilliant idea of casting on St Helena from the face of Emperor Napoleon’; this relic would be housed at Les Invalides: ‘every day, those brave old men would have gazed upon it with reverent respect’. However, the commission asks Antommarchi to “agree to produce multiple copies of this monument”, as there would be many who would subscribe “to possess the features of this illustrious and majestic head, every contour and every plane of which embodies a vast and generous idea”. It would be, particularly for the veteran soldiers, ‘a precious museum that would perpetuate the memory of great deeds, and strengthen the love of glory and the fatherland’ amongst the ‘admirers of Napoleon the Great’… Antommarchi endorsed the commission’s wishes.
See original version (French)
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About the sale AUTOGRAPHS & MANUSCRIPTS – PENNED BY HISTORY’S GREAT FIGURES
Auction location
Auction time 09/18/2026 at 2:00 PM
Ref. : 226165 - 41
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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