Constance de Théis, Countess of SALM (1767–1845), woman of l - Lot 96

Constance de Théis, Countess of SALM (1767–1845), woman of letters. 3 autograph letters written (L.A.S.) and one autograph letter signed (L.S.) with 5 lines in her own hand, Dyck and Paris 1827–1832, to Alexandre Duval; 14 pages, in-8 or in-4 format, 2 addresses (one letter with slits, tears, and repairs). Friendly correspondence with the playwright, member of the Academy, and librarian at the Arsenal. Dyck, June 29, 1827: Duval is in Cologne, and she sends him directions on how to reach her, advising him to travel via Neuss and Düsseldorf: “I don’t think you’ll want to leave Cologne without seeing at least the Three Kings and the 11,000 virgins”… – October 22, 1827. She will soon be back in Paris and hopes they will see each other often. “There is always something missing in a woman without a husband, just as there is in a husband without a wife”… – July 29, 1828. She had been ill and was touched by Duval’s expression of friendship. “My husband was no less charmed than I was by what you say about yourself, about your love of learning, and above all by your praise, offered so clearly and so delicately”; Duval’s works are “one of the finest adornments of my library”… – Dyck and Paris, October 15–November 19, 1832: she begins her letter to Dyck and dictates the rest in Paris; she hopes that her brother Amaury Duval has conveyed to him her thoughts on his *Misanthrope*: “I recognized you in every line; I felt as though I were still in our pleasant evenings together”; she is tired from her journey and from “the major work I have just completed, which, I can say, has not allowed me a single moment’s rest for nearly a year”; she invites him, along with her brother Amaury, to her Friday dinners; she was deeply affected by the death of Jean-Baptiste SAY (November 14) on the very day of her arrival… Enclosed is a long letter written from home to a friend who has just gotten married, Dyck, August 6, 1828 (8 pp., in-8); plus 2 handwritten letters to Madame Talma, and 2 printed letters to the Count and Countess de Chalot, inviting them to dinner or to spend the evening at her home.