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Leducq Maison de Ventes aux enchères
111
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The Gold Rush
See original version (French)
111
-
The Gold Rush
See original version (French)
Estimate €100 - €150
Voluntary lot
Description
The Gold Rush
Alexandre DUMAS the Younger. A History of the Lottery from the First to the Last. The Gold Ingot Lottery. Paris, Available from all booksellers, 1851.
In-12, caramel-coloured percaline, 2 bookplates.
16 pp., vignette on the title page, vignettes in the text.
First edition. This text first appeared in *La Presse* on 9 March 1851.
Established by decree of 3 August 1850, this lottery was organised by the ‘Société des lingots d’or’. The top prize was a 116-kilo gold ingot worth 100,000 francs, on display in the Passage Jouffroy. The official aim of this lottery was to transport 5,000 unemployed Parisian labourers to California free of charge (unofficially, to rid the capital of undesirable individuals and the destitute).
Those hoping to set off, who had been led to believe in a new Eldorado, signed up on registers. Between 1851 and 1853, the proceeds from the lottery enabled some 3,300 aspiring gold-diggers to be transported to California.
An uncredited newspaper clipping pasted onto the upper endpaper notes ‘He [Dumas Fils] reproaches himself for having, in this early work, stirred up a passion for games of chance and, it is said, pays two louis for every copy of the prospectus brought to him. ”
Vicaire III, 459.
Extremely rare.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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