OVA - THE ARISTOPHIL COLLECTIONS - Sale n°14 - SCIENCE

The second sale devoted to science rounds out the first one. It includes manuscripts and correspondence by mathematicians and physicists (the marquis de Condorcet, André Ampère, Alessandro Volta, Albert Einstein), an architect (Gustave Eiffel), naturalists (the comte de Buffon, Alexander Von Humboldt), chemists and physicians (René-Théophile Laennec, Louis Pasteur, Pierre Curie), neurologists, psychiatrists and behavioural psychologists (Jean-Baptiste Charcot, Carl Gustav Jung, Sigmund Freud, Ivan Pavlov) and inventors (Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, Auguste Lumière).

 

In the first article of his autograph manuscript Théorie du calcul élémentaire. Introduction, André AMPÈRE (1755-1836) writes, “Calculus, considered from the most general point of view, is all the operations that can be performed with numbers.” Ampère wrote this work for lay readers but it never came out during his lifetime; his son had it published posthumously in Nouvelles Annales de mathématiques. Abundantly corrected by the author, the manuscript is estimated at €15,000-20,000.
		Twenty-eight letters from Pierre CURIE (1859-1906) to chemist Eugène DEMARÇAY (1852-1903) offer a step-by-step account of his and Marie Curie’s experiments leading to the discovery of radium and the exploration of its properties (estimate: €40,000-50,000). The physicists asked Eugène Demarçay, a chemist specialising in spectroscopy, to help them confirm that they had discovered radium. The letters contain many thanks for his crucial assistance as well as the missive in which Pierre Curie announces the discovery of the new element: “Mme Curie and I have found a new, highly radioactive substance different from the one you agreed to examine. This time, the substance possesses analytical properties that are similar to those of Barium from which we have not yet been able to separate it. In addition to Barium rays, rays in the violet can be seen in the spectrum. It is our fervent wish to submit this spectrum to your examination.”
This part of the sale includes correspondence by Albert EINSTEIN (1879-1955) in which he discusses his scientific research, family life, and moral convictions. In a letter to his first wife Mileva, Einstein takes great pains to dissuade his eldest son, Albert, from entering into an “ill-advised” marriage, and writes that he would like his youngest son, Eduard, to join him for the Easter holidays (estimate: €3,000-4,000). Several letters to Ernest Gabor Strauss (1922-1983), Einstein’s collaborator, feature equations involving the theory of general relativity (estimates from €4,000-6,000 and €7,000-8,000). Lastly, the draft of a speech on world peace and food shortages written in 1945 or 1946 will be presented (estimate: €10,000-12,000).	aaa

The sale also includes a beautiful group of youthful letters from the inventor of the stethoscope, René-Théophile LAENNEC (1781-1826), to his father in which he describes his studies (estimate: €8,000-12,000, ill. 1); a telegram from Louis PASTEUR (1822-1895) to the veterinarian who supplied him with rabid dogs for his research (estimate: €4,000-5,000, ill. 2); manuscripts, reading notes, and measured drawings of hieroglyphics by Egyptologist Auguste BAILLET (1834-1923) (estimate: €3,000-5,000, ill. 3); and, by Geoffroy Étienne SAINT-HILAIRE (1772-1844), an autograph manuscript including notes about a human skeleton removed from an Egyptian mummy (estimate: €300-400, ill. 4).