[ORDER OF MALTA] - Lot 223

[ORDER OF MALTA] Set of 10 autographed letters or pieces, 1763-1826. ─ Two letters concern a bombardier longboat whose design has been offered to the Court of Naples. Chevalier de Grasse du Bar, author of a memoir on this mortar-armed rowboat, requests support for authorization to wear the cross of the order, already having that of the Duc de Choiseul [then Secretary of State for the Navy]. - L.a.s. from Emmanuel-Armand de Vignerot du Plessis-Richelieu, Duc d'Aiguillon, to a lady, Fontainebleau October 10, 1771, about the Chevalier du Bouchage, recommended by the king, for obtaining a commandery in Provence. ─ L.a.s. from Chevalier de Gournay to M. Laurence, banker in Poitiers, to whom he gives good hope that his two sons will be admitted to the order, despite M. de La Houssaye's reluctance. ─ Autograph minute and l.a.s. from Chevalier La Croix de Chevrières, indicating the arrangements and fees necessary to enter the Order of Malta, referring to a request made by Commandant d'Hautefeuille to Grand Master de Rohan for the son of his correspondent in 1795, currently serving in Holland. "The Order cannot be considered a foreign Order and since it is European, why should the King of Holland not view with genuine pleasure an Order that has rendered so much service to all powers, without harming any and without seeking conquests." ─ P.s. from Étienne duc de Damas-Crux, to the Tuileries November 20, 1815. Certificate of service drawn up for Jean Baptiste Joseph Ange de Forfanz, emigrated in 1791, having served in the Coalition de Bretagne and then in the Damas Infanterie regiment in 1793 and 1794, wounded in the leg "fighting like a brave man", with red wax seal of arms and Maltese cross. ─ 2 l.a.s. to M. La Croix, genealogist of the Order of Malta, Bruges July 20, 1821 and May 28, 1822, regarding a request for admission and possible recognition by the Netherlands of patents newly issued in Paris by the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. ─ L.a.s. from Marquis Jacques de Clermont-Mont-Saint-Jean, Hermé près Provins May 4, 1826, replying to M. Houdet about the latter's father, a Tiers-États deputy to the Estates General of 1789 who surely obtained the cross of the order but who does not appear, on a nominative list drawn up in 1815, for lack of necessary information. Guillaume-Benoît Houdet (1744-1812), elected in 1789 by the bailliage of Meaux, had voted against the death of the king and was imprisoned under the Terror for his moderate opinions; his son was knighted on June 30, 1830.