BONAPARTE (Napoleon). Autograph letter signed... Lot 35

BONAPARTE (Napoleon). Autograph letter signed "Bonaparte" to Jean-Jérôme Levie. "Aboard the Orient [in Ajaccio harbor], 9 prairial an [VI-28 mai 1798]. 1/4 p. folio, autograph address on verso, red wax stamp of Napoleon Bonaparte as general; document preserved in a green long-grain morocco portfolio, smooth mute spine, wide gilt decoration with eagle motifs, linings and endpapers of old-pink tabis; foxing (modern binding by Alain Devauchelle in the taste of the period). To the former mayor of Ajaccio "I would have been delighted to meet you, my dear Levie, but since circumstances have prevented it, we'll have to postpone it for another time. His bearer will give you a repeating watch, which I beg you to keep as a small token of my esteem and friendship for you..." It was a chronometer by Bréguet, which he had bought on his return from his Italian campaign. FROM A FAMILY INTIMATELY RELATED TO BONAPARTE, JEAN-JEROME LEVIE (d. 1803) WAS MAYOR OF AJACCIO from 1790 to 1791 and from 1800 to 1801 - François Levie, mayor of Ajaccio from 1805 to 1816, married a cousin of Letizia Bonaparte. It was Jean-Jérôme Levie who enabled Napoleon to escape arrest by the Anglo-Paolists in May 1793, by giving him asylum. It was also he who begged Letizia Bonaparte to reverse her refusal to lend Napoleon money on his return from Egypt. Napoleon appointed Jean-Jérôme Levie conservator of forests under the Consulate, as he could do no better given that the Ajaccio native spoke only Italian. On his death in 1803, he took charge of his children's education, and in his will in 1821, he bequeathed one hundred thousand francs to his heirs. Provenance: Xavier Versini (autograph description of this document, attached). Napoléon Bonaparte, Correspondance générale, Paris, Fayard, vol. II, 2005, no. 2511