(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) BEAUMARCHAIS PIERRE AUGUSTIN CARON DE

Sale 2192 - Lot 2

Price Realized: $ 1,320

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

PROVIDED SUPPLIES TO AMERICANS DURING THE REVOLUTION (AMERICAN REVOLUTION.) BEAUMARCHAIS, PIERRE AUGUSTIN CARON DE. Autograph Manuscript Signed, twice, within the text in the third person, in French, draft of a magazine announcement declaring that the King has pardoned him and that the Parliament had reversed his sentence of 26 April 1774. 1 1/2 pages, 12mo, written on the recto and verso of a single sheet; folds. Np, [1776]

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"Sir Beaumarchais, who has worked for 2.5 years to have his guilty sentence of 26 April 1774 reviewed and overturned by the Paris Parliament, has finally just received honorable letters patent from the King that pardon him . . . and adjourn his case . . . .
"On September 6, 'after a short and nervous pleading from the famous lawyer Target,' the sentence was reversed.
"This ruling, the conclusions, and the pleading were received with excessive applause . . . and Sir Beaumarchais, having regained his status of citizen . . . , enjoyed the pleasure of seeing the lively interest that his misfortunes had inspired, and the particular esteem with which all his fellow citizens honored him."
Beaumarchais (1732-1799), now best known as a playwright (Marriage of Figaro, Barber of Seville, etc.), was also a clockmaker, musician, inventor, and pamphleteer, who performed services for two French kings. With the approval of Louis XVI, he founded the firm of Roderigue Hortalez and Co., which supplied the American rebels witih weapons, munitions, clothes, and provisions, free of charge. The French parliament, which recognized his service to France and her American ally, restored his citizenship after it had been stripped from him in 1774 in an affair involving disputes about an inheritance.