APOLLINAIRE Guillaume (1880-1918)

Lot 301
Go to lot
Estimation :
5000 - 7000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 4 940EUR
APOLLINAIRE Guillaume (1880-1918)
Liber Amicorum of Marguerite CONSTANT DE STAVELOT, containing two autographed poems by APOLLINAIRE. This notebook with clasp consists of 24 pages and bears on the first page the mention "Marguerite Constant de Stavelot". It contains two autograph poems by Apollinaire. The two acrostic poems by Apollinaire, on the theme of marriage promises, are undated: the first titled "Antoine Marguerite" in black ink; the second "Marguerite" in violet ink with the initials "GA" accompanied by a small circular fi gure. The two poems do not follow each other and were therefore written at two different times. This notebook also contains 6 other poems copied by friends of Marguerite Constant and are dated "22/07/1897", "30/07/98", "02/02/1898" and "18/08/1898". In the summer of 1889, Albert and Wilhelm de Kostrowitzky, aged 17 and 19, stayed in Stavelot in the boarding house run by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Constant, where their mother, who was in Spa trying to make a fortune in the casino, had left them. The two penniless brothers were forced to flee during the night of 4 to 5 October, leaving behind them papers and drafts. Apollinaire also left, as a wedding present, the two poems of this liber amicorum dedicated to the young fiancés Marguerite Constant, the owners' fi lle, born in Stavelot on 20 July 1876, and her fi ancé Antoine Choque, a schoolteacher, born in Nassogne on 8 November 1876 The lack of income due to the non-payment of the brothers' accommodation Kostrowitzky forced the young fiancés to postpone their wedding for a few months. It took place on 29 August 1900. Although the existence of this notebook is known to Apollinaire's specialists, few of them, such as Christian Fettweis, have had it in their hands. The latter recounts his meeting in 1934 in Stavelot with a teacher (certainly the "young groom") who showed him "with a jealous hand, an album containing autographs in which Apollinaire had traced a strange sign in the manner of a swastika next to his signature". After the Second World War, Robert Goffi n learned that the Constant family still held "an autograph by Apollinaire in a small black notebook", but Marguerite's brother refused to show it to him. It is known that Apollinaire had another notebook, called Cahier de Stavelot, which he used from 1898 to 1900, entirely devoted to Stavelot, containing poems and texts in Walloon. Jacqueline Apollinaire gave it to the Bibliothèque nationale de France in 1993. It contains the two poems of the liber amicorum with a variant. This notebook comes directly from the family of Marguerite Constant. Catherine Righi and Patrice Lefebvre. "Sur deux textes retrouvés", in "Mémoires des Hautes Ardennes", n° 94. December 2006. Christian Fettweis, Apollinaire en Ardenne, 1934. Maurice Piron. Guillaume Apollinaire et l'Ardenne, 1975, p. 47.
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue