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Militaria and Political Auction
Lot 1292:
French Colonial archive containing Hubert Lyautey ALS, and letters from military commanders in Algeria
Description:
This small archive is comprised of four ALS and one ANS from French colonial military commanders including Hubert Lyautey (1854-1934) and Nicolas Changarnier (1793-1877).
Three pieces by Hubert Lyautey include two ALS and one ANS. His first letter is a bifold on watermarked "Le General Lvautey, Quarter General, Rennes" letterhead dated October 20, 1904 and signed "Your Hubert".
Addressed to "my old Roger", Lyautey explains how he recently received a letter from his old friend Charles d’Alton.
Later inscription by different hand on fourth page. In very fine condition with expected fold marks and isolated foxing, each page measuring 5.125" x 8". Lyautey’s second letter is a bifold on watermarked "Le General Lyautey, Residence Generale, Rabat" letterhead dated September 15, 1916 and signed "Your Hubert". Lyautey congratulates his "so dear friend" on the marriage of his granddaughter. In very fine condition with expected fold marks and isolated foxing, each page measuring 5.25" x 8.25". The ANS is dated January 7, 1933 and signed "Lyautey" at bottom center. The mourning stationery card is labeled with the retired military general’s address in northeastern France. It is in very fine condition, with a minor staple hole in the upper left corner, measuring 5.5" x 4.125".
The archive also includes a bifold cream letter on embossed stationery signed by Nicolas Changarnier as "The Gen.
Changarnier" on the bottom of the first page. Dated from Algiers, Algeria on July 15, 1841, the letter discusses the two-and-a-half-month furlough that the general hopes to spend in Burgundy. The fourth page is a postmarked integral holograph address leaf addressed to an unidentified lieutenant colonel stationed in Bone, Algeria (now the modern day coastal city of Annaba). In fine condition, with expected folds and spotty toning and foxing, each page measuring 8" x
10.5".
The last item is a bifold cream letter on embossed stationery signed "A. Sedeau" in the middle of the second page.
Dated from Bebdiah, Algeria on August 4, 1841, the general explains that he has not yet replied to his addressee’s early July letter because he had been enjoying "a very short vacation of two months" in France. The fourth page is a postmarked integral holograph address leaf addressed to the same unidentified lieutenant colonel and recipient of General Changarnier’s letter. In fine condition, with expected folds and isolated foxing, each page measuring 8.125" x
10.25"
The archive represents a cross-section of French colonialism in North Africa during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Hubert Lyautey (1854-1934) was instrumental in orchestrating the French takeover of independent Morocco.
He served as the Military Governor of Morocco and later as Resident General of Morocco between 1912 and 1925.
Our second letter was sent from his headquarters in the northwestern coastal city of Rabat, Morocco.
Nicolas Changarnier, educated at the military academy at St. Cyr, distinguished himself in campaigns in Spain and North Africa throughout the 1830s and 40s. Changarnier fought in the Battle of Mouzaia in 1840, in which French forces engaged Arab forces of ten times their number during the conquest of Algeria.
An interesting look at North Africa during 100 years of French colonialism!
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