Extrait du porte-feuille de M. Villiaume, précédé d'un opuscule sur son agence et ses mariages.

£750 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

An excellent copy of this rare pamphlet, one of the more intriguing stories to emerge from the Napoleonic wars. Born in 1780, Claude Villiaume’s career began in the army, though his involvement in a plot to assassinate Napoleon led to a lengthy spell in the asylum at Charenton. (In 1814, he published an account of this time: Mes Détentions comme prisonnier d’Etat sous le gouvernement du Buonaparte .. .) It was during his incarceration that the idea of match-making occurred to him and, making use with what he had, immediately set about trying to marry the other inmates off to each other. Undeterred by his early failures, upon release he began advertising in Petites Affiches which was the only Paris newspaper to carry personal ads. Before long, what was apparently France’s first marriage agency had offices on the rue Neuve-Saint-Eustache, trading as the Agence Générale et Centrale pour Paiset l’Empire. In need of something more substantial than ads in the press and posters on the street, this pamphlet - the wrapper title is Mariages par Correspondance - provides an excellent overview of the business. It includes a prospectus and a selection of (extraordinary) letters from people hoping to find a suitable partner. The majority of his clients were military personnel and Villiaume’s success was such that within a decade the enterprise had become international and, tellingly, he was satirised in the contemporary press. Andrea Mansker deftly summarises Villiaume’s enterprise: “Offer

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