Autograph; Hortense de Beauharnais - Recueil des Romances de
Hortense de Beauharnais - Recueil des Romances de la Reine Hortense - Paris: A. Vialon - circa pp., 21 pp., 21 pp., 23 pp., 17 pp., 23 pp., 19 pp., 25 pp., 25 pp., 23 pp., 21 pp., 21 pp. Bound with half crimson morocco leather, nice gilt design on the back, marbled edges harmonized with marbled endpapers, 34.5 x 26.5 cm.Good overall condition: edges slightly rubbed, few foxing and minor defects.Scarce album inscribed by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte as French president (, before he became French Emperor) to Henrietta, Countess of Lincoln, later Duchess of Newcastle () with Napoleon's autograph. As a matter of fact, the music of this album is ascribed to Hortense, Queen consort of Holland, stepdaughter of Emperor Napoleon I, being the daughter of his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. She later became the wife of the former's brother, Louis Bonaparte and the mother of Napoleon III, Emperor of the French who signed this copy. According to Scholes (Oxford companion to music) Louis Drouet might have contributed to music. The work contains 12 series of 12 scores and lyrics, principally for one voice and piano. Scores are engraved with care and printed on remarkable quality paper. Read More