[DUMONT D’URVILLE] Louis-Auguste de Sainson, artist on the Astrolabe expedition : autograph letter signed, dated August 1831.

A$1,200 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Signed

Manuscript in ink written on 2 sides of a quarto bifolium, 240 x 185 mm; dated at Paris, 18 August 1831, and signed at the foot De Sainson, painter du voyage de l Astrolabe, rue St. André des arts 55 , the letter is addressed to monsieur le Baron ; de Sainson writes to ensure that a promise obtained from King Louis-Philippe in favour of his father, geographical engineer Louis-Pierre de Sainson (1764-1845), is honoured; the letter is extremely well preserved. Au mois de juin dernier, le Roi ayant daigné m accorder une audience, je lui remis une demande par laquelle mon père, chef de bataillon commandant de place, sur le point de solliciter sa retraite, suppliait Sa Majesté de lui accorder un emploi dans l une de ses possessions Royales sans aucun traitement sur la liste civile ; sa retraite et ses moyens personnels suffisant à son existence. Il demandait seulement à utiliser pour le service du Roi la vigueur la santé qu il a eu le bonheur de conserver [ ]. Il a été vingt-cinq ans ingénieur géographe et autant d années officier d état major, tout son désir est d employer utilement le tems que sa retraite va lui laisser. Les considérations de fortune n y entrent pour rien [ ] . Last June, the King having deigned to grant me an audience, I passed on to him a request from my father, a battalion commander who was about to register his retirement, in which he begged His Majesty to grant him a job in one of his Royal possessions without being placed on the civil list, his retirement

• Binding: Hardcover

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