Sibylle-Gabrielle-Marie-Antoinette de Riquetti de Mirabeau, - Lot 351

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Lot n° 351
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800 - 1000 EUR
Sibylle-Gabrielle-Marie-Antoinette de Riquetti de Mirabeau, - Lot 351
Sibylle-Gabrielle-Marie-Antoinette de Riquetti de Mirabeau, Countess of Martel, known as GYP (1849–1932). 30 letters (L.A.S. or L.A.), 1905–1907, to Count Gabriel de Vulpillières (one to the Countess); approximately 320 pages, mostly in-8, with numerous envelopes. An intriguing collection of letters concerning lawsuits against her mother and her partner. [Countess Marie de Mirabeau, née Le Harivel de Gonneville (1827–1914), who separated very early on from her husband Arundel de Riquetti de Mirabeau—the grandnephew of the great Mirabeau—and became a widow in 1860, led from then on a very free social life, which her daughter disapproved of.] We can offer only a glimpse of these long letters, written (except for one) in violet ink in her large handwriting, on blue paper or half-mourning paper, most of them signed “Mirabeau Martel.” She sued her mother and Alexandre Nouserand; the hearing was postponed. She gathered information in Cossesseville: her mother had tried to have her stablehand Alexandre appointed as a guard, but since he had been convicted, he could not be sworn in; he is now a cashier… She must go speak with her mother: “This is the first time I’ll see her again”… She warns Vulpillières about her mother. As an insurance inspector, Vulpillières cannot keep Alexandre—a “convicted felon”—employed at his company. Alexandre’s case is going to appeal: “They’re going to portray Alexandre as a victim of Gyp”… She no longer exists for her mother, who is “completely under the spell of that scoundrel […] nothing can stand up to the ex-convict who is living in her home.” His criminal record is extensive: “Three confirmed convictions, not to mention what we don’t know”; he is “notoriously a dangerous alcoholic.” His mother “will be forced to leave every hotel, every apartment, every place she goes while being accompanied by that alcoholic scoundrel. All of this saddens me deeply. But I can’t force my mother to stay with me. And Alexandre has made me loathe her”… She mentions his novel *Cloclo*; her mother “wrote a novel in response to *Cloclo* and said she included my grandfather and grandmother in it. So I wrote her a note warning her that if she said anything against anyone other than me, she’d hear from me in a *Cloclo* that’s more transparent this time. It’s true, she can do whatever she wants to me and I couldn’t care less, but I don’t want her to use my grandfather, who, if he were alive, would crush Alexandre and her along with him. “It seems Alexandre is definitely being prosecuted in criminal court for knocking out the building superintendent”… Alexandre is resorting to blackmail and defamation, parading around newspaper offices “a volume of *Cloclo* annotated by my mother; a list of accusations, also in my mother’s handwriting, claiming that I don’t pay my servants, my suppliers, etc.… (fortunately, false claims!) and finally a bundle of letters from me, which he is demanding be published to take revenge on Cloclo. These letters are confidential letters written by me to my mother, who is offering to pay a high price to have them published”… Etc. Enclosed is a handwritten letter from the Count of Martel, dated October 30, 1905, thanking the Count of Vulpillières for the hospitality shown to his son Thierry (3 pp., in-8, with envelope).
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