$215
Lescallier, Baron Daniel (1743-1822) Coded Letter, Signed, New York, 19 November 1812. Single large bifolium sheet inscribed on four pages. From Lescallier, the French Consul General to the United States (1810-1815), to the French Minster of Foreign Affairs, Hugues-Bernard Maret, Duke of Bassano (1763-1839), address, date, greeting, closing, and signature written normally, the complete content of the letter written exclusively in a series of two-, three-, and four-digit numbers; with the addressed envelope, red wax seal cracked but present; old folds to the letter, some toning, the sheet watermarked with the date 1810, envelope torn, the letter 16 x 12 1/2 in. unfolded. In her 2005 book, Daniel Lescallier, Man of the Sea - and Military Spy? , Margaret Bradley explores Lescallier's activities as an industrial spy in the period preceding the Napoleonic Wars.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2014-11-16