53 - Important album amicorum by Eugénie Courtil (mid-19th century, Normandy)

Important album amicorum by Eugénie Courtil (mid-19th century, Normandy) Italian-style format, bound in crimson velvet with a partially gilded interlaced decoration, gilt edges, containing a collection of letters, manuscripts, and drawings. The binding is heavily damaged due to a fire. Mid-19th century, circa 1846–1848; some letters are older. Notably included are: - at the beginning of the album, a collection of 16 drawings, primarily in pencil and white chalk on heavily tinted paper or in black pencil on paper; two of them are in pencil and watercolor, depicting landscapes, ornaments, and bouquets of natural flowers, including roses, tulips, Mary’s hearts, etc., some signed “Eugénie Courtil” or “E. Courtil” or simply “Courtil,” sometimes dated between 1845 and 1846 and identified as being from Caen and Ouistreham, among other locations; - two pieces of Arabic calligraphy on marbled paper, one of which features a header finely illuminated in gold and color with a motif of lambrequins and foliage; - and a collection of miscellaneous manuscripts, including a letter “from the author to the editor” addressed to “Sauvo, Director of the Moniteur Universel,” dated April 20, 1823, in Paris, and addressed to the Count, Prefect of the Loire-Inférieure, concerning the account of a journey by the Duchess of Angoulême in the newspaper *L’Ami de la Charte*, a Legitimist publication; an invitation from the Duchess of Berry to an evening reception, addressed to Baron de Vincent, Minister of Austria, dated January 20, 1826; a letter from the Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres regarding the receipt of a volume containing the principal monuments of the reign of Charles X and its deposit at the Library of the Institute, dated July 20, 1828, and signed by the Academy’s Permanent Secretary, Joseph Dacier; a letter “Sémonville” from the Marquis Charles-Huguet de Sémonville (1759–1839) Peer of France and Grand Referendary of the Chamber of Paris: “I have asked the general to convey my deepest regrets to Madame the Countess of Castellane”; two autograph letters from Charles-Henri-Frédéric Dumont de Sainte-Croix (1758–1830), a French ornithologist, - an invitation to the festivities held at Paris City Hall on the occasion of the coronation of King Charles X, addressed to Mr. Jean-Pierre Piet-Tardiveau (1763–1868), an ultra-royalist deputy, bearing the autograph signatures of the members of the Festivities Commission, on printed letterhead featuring the Throne Room, with a stamp bearing the coat of arms of France from the Prefecture of the Department of the Seine; - a handwritten letter sent by the Count of M from the Château de Rhodes to the Marquis Louis d’Olive at his residence on Rue de la Dalbade in Toulouse.