1 - BARTHOLDI (Auguste). Signed autograph letter, with an ORIGINAL DRAWING, addressed to Senator Édouard Millaud. Paris, January 6, 1885. 2 pp., in-8, on printed letterhead bearing his monogram.

BARTHOLDI (Auguste). Signed autograph letter, with an ORIGINAL DRAWING, addressed to Senator Édouard Millaud. Paris, January 6, 1885. 2 pp., in-8, on printed letterhead bearing his monogram. “Dear and excellent friend, I thank you very much for all the interest you have shown in the Gaget affair; Naturally, reading the newspaper could not stop the gossip; but Mr. Gaget has heard from various sources how much you have taken an interest in him, and he was very touched by it—I must even say that it significantly softened his feelings. He will come to thank you shortly, as this has given him great pleasure. I believe, moreover, that the situation is not bad for him; perhaps when the statue is shipped at the end of April, the committee could issue a new letter. I have seen such appointments made during the course of the year before, and ministers are less pressed for time then than during the critical deadlines in July or January. You’ll let me know your opinion when the time comes, won’t you... » THE ORIGINAL DRAWING DEPICTS A CARICATURE OF THE FOUNDRER OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY, ÉMILE GAGET. Together with his partner Jean-Baptiste Gauthier, Émile Gaget had asked his friend Auguste Bartholdi to help secure an award in recognition of the technical feat accomplished for the statue. As the reward was slow in coming, Gaget and Gauthier had begun to sulk—Bartholdi then jokingly told Édouard Millaud that noses tend to grow longer: here, the nose practically bursts out of the newspaper. THE LEGENDARY STATUE OF LIBERTY. The idea of erecting such a monument was first proposed in 1865 by the Republican academician Édouard de Laboulaye, who was opposed to the expedition the imperial regime was waging in Mexico, which was causing tensions with the United States. The project for an immense statue—an explicit reference to the Colossus of Rhodes—was financed by private donations and entrusted to two staunch Republicans: the sculptor Auguste Bartholdi and the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who was responsible for the metal structure. The copper pieces to be assembled were cast at the Monduit and Bechet foundry, which was soon taken over by Émile Gaget (a friend of Auguste Bartholdi) and his partner Jean-Baptiste Gauthier. The project took nearly ten years, from the start of work in 1875 to its installation and dedication in New York in 1886. Since Viollet-le-Duc had died in 1879, Gustave Eiffel took over supervision of the metal structure.