Leducq Maison de Ventes aux enchères
98
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Ida FERRIER. Autograph signed letter to a ‘dear Count’, unda…
See original version (French)
98
-
Ida FERRIER. Autograph signed letter to a ‘dear Count’, unda…
See original version (French)
Estimate €100 - €150
Voluntary lot
Description
Ida FERRIER. Autograph signed letter to a ‘dear Count’, undated [c. 1844]. 1 p. in-8 on paper bearing the embossed coat of arms of the Davy de La Pailleterie family.
‘There’s no point in dealing with people who change their minds thirty times a minute, so let’s not talk about it any more. Do come and say goodbye to my Wednesdays this evening; I’m burying them until next winter…’
After a seven-year affair, in 1840 Dumas suddenly decided to marry Ida Ferrier. Following four years spent almost continuously in Italy, the couple returned to Paris. At 45 Rue de la Chaussée d’Antin, where he had settled, life was glamorous and Ida hosted a reception every Wednesday after the theatre performances.
By the end of the year, the couple had separated and Ida returned to live in Italy, where she died in 1859.
Extremely rare.
The two daughters: Marie and Micaëlla
Marie, the younger sister of Alexandre Dumas the Younger, was the daughter of the actress Belle Kreilssammer. She was born in 1831 and was immediately recognised by her father. She was brought up by Dumas’s wife, Ida Ferrier, in Paris and then in Florence, where Ida had gone to live following her separation from Dumas. It was not until 1846 that she joined her father, though she found it difficult to cope with his financial and romantic escapades! In 1856 she married Olinde Pétel, from whom she separated in 1861. She ran Dumas’s household on Boulevard Malesherbes, whilst devoting herself to painting and writing.
Micaëlla was the youngest child, the result of Dumas’s affair with another actress, Émilie Cordier. She was born on 24 December 1860 and enjoyed a happy early childhood with her father, notably in Naples, where Émilie had accompanied Dumas. Émilie, to whom Dumas had offered to recognise the little girl on condition that she raise her, refused. She therefore remained with her mother, who remarried and sent her to a convent until she was eighteen. She then moved to Émilie’s new home, where she was unwelcome by her half-brothers and sisters. Rejected by them, as well as by the Dumas family, and without any means of support, she first experienced hardship and then destitution until her death in 1936.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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