Antique Polish Russia Aristocrat Engagement Archive Rzewuska Meleniewski Balzac For Sale

Bibelotslondon Ltd is a UK registered company based in London Bridge dealing in ephemera and curiosities from Britain and around the world. Our diverse inventory is carefully chosen and constantly evolving. We work very hard to offer the highest quality works at competitive prices. Our inventory is listed online, and we strive to keep our website completely up to date, so our customers can easily check availability. We believe in offering clients items that are unique and rare for aficionados of the antique and collector\'s world.Bibelot is a late nineteenth century word derived from the French word bel ‘beautiful’, meaning a small item of beauty, curiosity or interest.The word ephemera is derived from the sixteenth century Greek word ephmera meaning a printed or hand written paper not meant to be retained for a long period of time.

Fine antique archive of 16 signed letters some accompanied by their original posted envelopes from Countess Ernestine Rzewuska (1846-1908) to her future fiancé and husband Baron Felix Stanislas Antoine Kopacz de Meleniewski (1846-1908), he styled in the correspondence \'Commandeur de l\'Ordre de Malte\'. The letters were written chiefly from Hyeres, a fashionable winter resort on the French Riviera, and addressed to her fiancé while he was travelling between Nice, Menton, and Monaco during the winter season of the mid 1870\'s documenting the emotional course of the couple\'s engagement leading up to their marriage on 16th March 1876.Rzewuska belonged to the aristocratic house notable for its connection to Ewlina Hanska born Rzewuska, who after a long and celebrated romantic correspondence became wife of the novelist Honore de Balzac. Ernestine belonged to the next generation of the same family being her niece. Felix was a Polish nobleman and when read in sequence they form a coherent romantic narrative almost like reading a short romantic novel starting in November 1875 through to February-March 1876.The earliest letters express strong affection and confidence in their future together \"I love you passionately...I wish to belong to you alone\". However, one dramatic letter reveals that the relationship nearly ended as she expresses suspicion regarding Felix\'s earlier romantic attachments \"I have no right to ask you to break with your former relationships\" \"What husband is there whose wife alone is enough for him - especially when he is twenty-nine\" \"I came very close to returning your ring...if I did not fear scandal I would have done it\". Later letters show a calmer tone as they reconcile and discuss the legal requirements for the marriage. Intermixed with the expressions of love are details relating to the dowry of 6000 francs, legal regulations, the death of her grandmother and the Polish aristocratic estate Sieniawa, historically belonging to the Czartoryski family.
Largest Size: 13 x 21 cm approx
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