Ian Ehling
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Lot 26
BONAPARTE, NAPOLEON. 1769-1821; and EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 1763-1814. 1. Letter Signed ("Bonap"), to his brother-in-law Joachim Murat apprising him of current military maneuverings,
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BONAPARTE, NAPOLEON. 1769-1821; and EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 1763-1814.
1. Letter Signed ("Bonap"), to his brother-in-law Joachim Murat apprising him of current military maneuverings, 2 pp recto and verso, 4to, Dresden, September 1, 1813, light creasing and toning, matted with portrait and framed.
2. Letter Signed ("Josephine"), to the Minister of Finance suggesting a candidate for Inspector of City Tolls, 1 p, 4to, Malmaison, May 15, 1813, light creasing and toning, mounting remnants at left margin, matted with portrait and framed. Post-divorce from Napoleon, Josephine retained her title of Empress and, as this letter attests, her influence in governmental matters.
In this two-page letter, Napoleon informs Murat of recent military movements (from translation): "The Duke of Taranto is today in the outskirts of Gorlitz. If he continues his retreating movements, it will be necessary for me to go to his rescue. I must not let him get beyond Bautzen ... The misfortune which has befallen the 1st Corps is one that was not to be expected. General Vandamme, who seems to have been killed, had not left a sentinel on the mountains, nor a reserve anywhere; he had become bogged down without having done any reconnoitering. Nevertheless, a great many soldiers from his Corps have been arriving; almost all the generals have arrived, and 15,000 men also have arrived; so that I believe that my loss will be no more than four or five thousand men."
The Napoleon letter was written just after the completion of the Armistice of Pleischwitz that followed the Battle of Bautzen, which Napoleon agreed to hoping to gather more troops and better train them. He later came to see this truce as a mistake, as the break was more advantageous to his adversaries than to him.
2. Letter Signed ("Josephine"), to the Minister of Finance suggesting a candidate for Inspector of City Tolls, 1 p, 4to, Malmaison, May 15, 1813, light creasing and toning, mounting remnants at left margin, matted with portrait and framed. Post-divorce from Napoleon, Josephine retained her title of Empress and, as this letter attests, her influence in governmental matters.
In this two-page letter, Napoleon informs Murat of recent military movements (from translation): "The Duke of Taranto is today in the outskirts of Gorlitz. If he continues his retreating movements, it will be necessary for me to go to his rescue. I must not let him get beyond Bautzen ... The misfortune which has befallen the 1st Corps is one that was not to be expected. General Vandamme, who seems to have been killed, had not left a sentinel on the mountains, nor a reserve anywhere; he had become bogged down without having done any reconnoitering. Nevertheless, a great many soldiers from his Corps have been arriving; almost all the generals have arrived, and 15,000 men also have arrived; so that I believe that my loss will be no more than four or five thousand men."
The Napoleon letter was written just after the completion of the Armistice of Pleischwitz that followed the Battle of Bautzen, which Napoleon agreed to hoping to gather more troops and better train them. He later came to see this truce as a mistake, as the break was more advantageous to his adversaries than to him.