JOSEPHINE (EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH)


Autograph letter signed ("Lapagerie Bonaparte"), in French, to her friend and neighbour Jean Chanorier ("Citoyen Channorier"), acting as her agent [for the purchase of Malmaison] and putting the matter of settling the outstanding sum of 280,000 livres entirely in his hands ("...Je ne puis mieux faire que de mettre mes interets entre vos mains, mon cher voisin. Je vous donne carte blanche, faites comme pour vous. Le plaisir d'être tout à fait votre voisine est pour moi sans peine; voici mes conditions, en supposant que M.de Dumolai demanda deux cents quatre vingt mille livres comme vous me le faites entendre dans votre lettre je m'engagerois à donner cinquante mille livres comptant, 50 mille au trente germinal fixe, 50 mille au quinze floréal fixe, et 50 mille au trente pluvial fixe, quant au quatre vingt mille livres qui resteroient dues je m'engagerois a les payer dans six ou huit mois avec les interets qui seroient convenus de payer..."); with integral autograph address leaf directed to "Citoyen Channorier", at 14 Place Vendôme, 1 page, repaired seal-tear in address leaf, which has been laid onto an album leaf, 4to, no place, "9 ventose" no year (27 February) [1799]
|'MON CHER VOISIN. JE VOUS DONNE CARTE BLANCHE, FAITES COMME POUR VOUS' – THE LETTER BY WHICH JOSEPHINE AUTHORISES HER AGENT TO BUY MALMAISON DURING NAPOLEON'S ABSENCE ON THE EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN.Famously, the practically penniless Josephine purchased her beloved Malmaison in the spring of 1799 for a huge sum while her husband was away campaigning. (On the day this letter was written, General Bonaparte, unperturbed by the fact that Nelson had cut off his escape route home, was issuing orders from his army headquarters at Gazza, having just endured a harrowing crossing of the Syrian Desert, and preparing to march on to Jaffa.) Madame Bonaparte was acting under the mistaken expectation that the conquering hero would return with a fortune, which he did not: 'Malmaison was a venerable, former seigneurial domain of substantial proportions with pleasant vistas, farms that could be leased out for income, ample outbuildings for livestock, and vineyards that had gained some local reputation. The estate was in the hands of the Lecoulteux family — members of the former administrative nobility who had lost their money during the Revolution and who had permitted the property, both inside and outside, to become badly rundown. It was not unknown to Bonaparte, who on his return from Italy was reported to have offered 300,000 francs for it. In the spring of 1799 Josephine undertook negotiations again, using the mayor of Croissy, M. Chanorier, as her agent, and relying also on the expert help of her old Parisian adviser, M. Raguideau. After much haggling the price was brought down from 300,000 francs to 225,000 francs, with extra sums to be paid for the furnishings and for other rights raising the total to more than 271,000 francs. When the contract was signed on 21 April 1799 Josephine did not have the funds to make even a token down-payment. She was forced, consequently, to borrow 15,000 francs from the estate steward for this purpose, so that with his obliging assistance the transaction was sealed. However dilapidated and unfashionable the furnishings of Malmaison then seemed, Josephine was sure that the near future would make possible an almost magical transformation. And Bonaparte could foot the bills' (Ernest John Knapton, Empress Josephine, 1963, pp.180-81).The "M.de Dumolai" described by Josephine as demanding "deux cents quatre vingt mille livres" was Madame du Molay, the owner of the château, whose banker husband Jacques-Jean Le Couteulx du Molay had purchased it in 1771, and where before it fell into disrepair she had hosted a literary salon. The letter's recipient, Jean Chanorier, was the last Seigneur and first Mayor of Croissy, a friend of Benjamin Franklin, and former Receiver General of Finances. Although a patriotic supporter of the Revolution, his antecedents attracted suspicion during the Reign of Terror. In 1779 he had acquired the Chateau de Croissy and it was here that Josephine de Beauharnais sought shelter in 1793, the two becoming good friends.He was also owner of an eponymous island on the Seine, facing the estate of Malmaison; one more commonly known, nowadays, as La Chaussée (where the Impressionists used to foregather at La Grenouillère). It was this that allows Josephine to style her friend "voisin". (One looks in vain for any properties owned by Josephine in the Place Vendôme, although, by pleasing coincidence, given the context, Chanorier's abode at Number 14 provides the Chase Manhattan Bank with its present day Paris headquarters).Once Napoleon, on getting back from Egypt, had recovered his good temper and also taken Malmaison to his heart, he tried to buy Chanorier's island, having failed to buy another estate more obviously suited to his purposes; as Marshal Junot's widow was to recall: 'le premier consul chercha alors à étendre le parc sur sa gauche et devant lui, puisqu'il ne pouvait le faire autrement. Il eut un moment l'idée la plus singulière; ce fut d'acheter l'île Channorier. C'est une île plantée d'arbres, dans laquelle il y a de beaux ombrages, de beaux gazons, et d'une étendue assez considérable. Elle est au milieu de la Seine; à la vérité, en face de la Malmaison, mais à une distance bien trop grande pour qu'on pût avoir la pensée de la faire servir à l'agrandissement du parc./ – Mais à Morfontaine, répondit le premier consul un jour que Joséphine lui en faisant l'observation, à Morfontaine, les lacs sont de l'autre côté de la route: on peut facilement faire un chemin souterrain, et, en achetant tout le terrain qui se trouve entre la route et la rivière et le plantant en jardin anglais, il me semble que cela pourrait se faire?/ Je crois que Fontaine le fit renoncer à son projet, vu que M. de Channorier ne voulut pas vendre son île. Ce que je sais, c'est que le premier consul chercha d'un autre côté et ce fut alors qu'il acheta les bois du Butard' (Mémoires de la Duchesse d'Abrantès, Nelson, Éditeurs, n.d., i, pp.283-84).(The old livre currency, as used in our letter, was to give way to the franc at this time: the last livre notes and coins had been issued in 1794, the franc being introduced the following year at approximately the same rate, one livre and an eightieth; the first one-franc coin being struck in 1803.)