Francis de CASTELNAU (1810-1880), naturalist and explorer of - Lot 12

Lot 12
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Result : 1 300EUR
Francis de CASTELNAU (1810-1880), naturalist and explorer of - Lot 12
Francis de CASTELNAU (1810-1880), naturalist and explorer of America. Autograph letter signed to painter and lithographer Jean-Jacques Champin (1796-1860). 2 pp. in-4. Address on back. Bahia (Brazil), September 12, 1853. Remainder of tab attached to one side. Beautiful letter written from Brazil about the illustration of the Expedition in the central parts of South America, from Rio de Janeiro to Lima and from Lima to Pará, executed by order of the French government during the years 1843 to 1847, under the direction of Francis de Castelnau, published by Arthus Bertrand, from 1850 to 1859, in 14 volumes in-4. This letter refers to Part 3, entitled Antiquités des Incas et autres peuples anciens, recueillies pendant l'expédition dans les parties centrales de l'Amérique du Sud, de Rio de Janeiro à Lima, et de Lima au Para exécutée par ordre du gouvernement français pendant les années 1843 à 1847, published in 1854. "I have just received from Mr Bertrand the end of the views and the first 3 issues of the antiquités des Incas, and I feel the need to thank you for the care you have taken in these publications. It was impossible to make better use of my poor drawings than you did, and many of the plates are charming. It's unfortunate that you didn't see for yourself what a magnificent atlas we would have, but in the end you were kind enough to lend the support of your charming talent to the shapeless sketches of a traveler [...]. I would have liked to fit more subjects on the plates, because the traveler would like to publish everything he has brought back at the cost of so much money and sacrifice, and is indignant at the smallness of the plates, at the publisher, at the artist, but you, as a man of taste, have made an artistic choice and sometimes sacrificed some of my favorites [...]". He hopes for her indulgence in his judgment, being ill, "for five years exiled in America" and far from his family.
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