The Three Shattered Lives of the Amaury Taittinger Collection

In the world of historic memento collections, this group assembled by Amaury Taittinger stands apart for its distinctly touching quality. For once, it is not kings, emperors or empresses who come to life through these memories, but children – though they were princes, too. Though their futures looked bright at birth, they were drawn into tragic fates against their will, which continue to fascinate "a select circle of collectors both within and outside France", says expert Thierry Bodin. Relics of the prisoner in the Temple Born on March 27, 1785, Louis-Charles of France was affected from the age of 4 by the fate of his parents, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, who were forced to move to the Tuileries Palace in October 1789. "The fact that there are so few objects that belonged to him, particularly any handwritten material because he lived such a short time, makes him the most sought-after of the three princes," says Thierry Bodin. The precious relic here consists of some homework dating from 1790-1791, where the little boy has written his name between lines traced in pencil: on the second page, he has written the following words: “Gouvenement. Gouvernement. Harmonique. Impassibilité. Louis Charles”: evidence…