[DUCHESSE DE BERRY - COMTE DE CHAMBORD]. COLLECTION of autog - Lot 78

[DUCHESSE DE BERRY - COMTE DE CHAMBORD]. COLLECTION of autograph souvenirs, signed or not, of LL. AA. RR. Madame [la] Duchesse de Berry, Monseigneur le Duc de Bordeaux and Mademoiselle [d'Artois], her sister, all compiled by the duchess's history teacher, Henri Colart. 1833, one large volume in-4°, green calf, cold-stamped on the boards with a large plate framed by a Greek design, itself set with a roulette of cold-pushed palmettes and a gilt fillet, smooth spine with cold-stamped diamond pattern, gilt inner roulette, natural edges (period binding). The album consists of 19 sheets of strong white wove paper, divided into three sections, each dedicated to one of Colart's three royal pupils. On the leaves are mounted a total of 9 autograph pieces (texts or drawings), signed or unsigned, from the Duchesse de Berry (1 piece on 3 ff.), the Duc de Bordeaux (3 pieces on 4 ff.) and Louise d'Artois (5 pieces on 4 ff.). Each section opens with a calligraphic title leaf, itself framed by a foliate scroll set with several fillets, all traced in black and colored inks most likely by Henri Colart. [Detailed description on request] A moving souvenir album by [Henri?] Colart, "history teacher to the Duchess of Berry", featuring various manuscripts and autograph drawings. It is a precious testimony to the interest that Marie-Caroline de Berry (1798-1870), née de Bourbon-Siciles, great-niece of Marie-Antoinette through her mother, took in perfecting her intellectual training long after her childhood years - at the time of the course given here, in March 1829, she was 30 years old. What's more, it bears witness to the creative and caring pedagogical relationship the teacher, about whom little or nothing is known, was able to forge with the duchess's children, Henri (1820-1883), Duke of Bordeaux, and his sister Louise d'Artois (1819-1864), to whom he also lavished his teachings, and to his attachment to his royal pupil and her family. As well as being moving, this document is remarkable in that it tells us, first and foremost, that the Duchesse de Berry, a foreign princess turned French royal highness, widow, likely to become the mother of a king and, why not, regent, followed, with apparently great attention, an education in which history was undoubtedly one of the pivots. The extensive library she had amassed at great expense in her château at Rosny was further evidence of her taste for intellectual subjects. We are on the eve of the royalist uprising of 1831-1832, which the princess attempted to lead against Louis-Philippe's government, which had emerged from the July Revolution and to which she denied any legitimacy. In fact, Marie-Caroline intended to assume the regency for the benefit of her young son, whom she felt was destined for the French throne following the renunciation of his uncle, the Duc d'Angoulême, Charles X's eldest son. Widowed by the Duc de Berry, the younger brother of the Duc d'Angoulême, barely four years after their marriage, Marie-Caroline believed, and many Legitimists with her, that she and her son embodied the hope of the Bourbon dynasty of France. Henri Dieudonné d'Artois, titled Duke of Bordeaux at birth - he would later be known as the Count of Chambord, but for the time being is often referred to as "l'Enfant du Miracle" - was born seven months after his father's assassination, and became in extremis the promise of the dynasty. From then on, he was the special object of all attention. As a son of France, the education of the Duc de Bordeaux and his sister was initially placed under the authority of the governess of the Enfants de France, Joséphine de Gontaut (1773-1862), who was appointed to this position by the parents as soon as Louise was born. The governess of the Enfants de France was assisted in her task by a relatively large staff of sous-gouvernantes, chambermaids and nannies, and, of course, teachers. Among these, Marie-Caroline's history teacher, Mr. Colart, naturally had his place. Nevertheless, the young prince's education was soon entrusted, as tradition dictated, to a military governor - in 1828, Baron de Damas (1785-1862) was appointed to the post by Charles X to replace the recently deceased Marquis de Rivière. In his reminiscences, the baron, looking back on his tenure, harshly judges the general direction then given to the boy's education. He spares only two of the teachers in place: the geologist Joachim Barrande (1799-1883), the only one whose lessons possessed "some solidity", and Mr. Colart, about whom he writes: "I multiplied the walks, the exercises, and I made much use of Mr. Colart, who knew how to am