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Lot 68
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Ferdinand de Lesseps, 2 Unbelievable Letters Referring to Both the Suez & Panama Canal Projects!
Ferdinand de Lesseps, 2 Unbelievable Letters Referring to Both the Suez & Panama Canal Projects!
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Description:

Ferdinand de Lesseps, 2 Unbelievable Letters Referring to Both the Suez & Panama Canal Projects!

Two letters signed by French diplomat and engineering developer Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805-1894), the first an autograph letter signed, and the second a letter signed. The letters written 22 years apart are both signed by de Lesseps as "Ferd. de Lesseps." The ALS was written just a few months before the triumphant opening of the Suez Canal--definitely the apogee of de Lessep's endeavors--while the LS was written in the wake of the collapse of the Panama Canal project.

The lot is comprised of:

1. A 4pp autograph letter signed by de Lesseps and addressed to an unidentified female correspondent. Written at de Lessep's home in La Chenaie, in central France, on September 3, 1868. On bifold laid paper. Expected light paper folds and residual ghost ink impressions. The blank fourth page has isolated stains. Else near fine. 5.125" x 8.125."

In this letter, De Lesseps explained that he had returned to France much earlier than anticipated from a month-long overseas voyage touring the Suez Canal work site.

De Lesseps had already garnered two decades of diplomatic experience in Algeria, Egypt, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands by the time he was invited by Egyptian leader Said Pasha to build the Suez Canal in 1854. This route would eventually connect the Mediterranean and Red Seas, creating enormous trading possibilities. De Lesseps employed all his diplomatic finesse to encourage subscriptions for the Suez project, via the fundraising organ of the canal project, the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez.

Canal construction began at Port Said, Egypt in April 1859. Nearly a decade later, de Lesseps reported excitedly on the canal's progress, forecasting that it would open less than one month later, on October 1, 1869. (As it turned out, the opening was delayed by six weeks, becoming accessible to maritime traffic only on November 17, 1869.) As the major developer behind the Suez Canal, de Lesseps was understandably thrilled with its progress. He proudly called it "the Egyptian Bosporus" ["du Bosphore Egyptien"], thus alluding to the storied Bosporus, or Strait of Istanbul, separating Europe from Asia some 2,400 km to the northwest.

Translated in part, with punctuation silently added to improve clarity:

"I was in Paris the 31 after having done all of my five-day visit, a thousand leagues pushing past the [B]lack [S]ea, Bulgaria, Valadrie (?), Georgia and Austria. My absence from France didn't last more than a month yet nevertheless I had time to stay fourteen days in Egypt and in my Isthmus. I was made satisfied with my voyage, the work on the canal proceeding marvelously; two million cubic meters in one month! The date of 1st October 1869 is [illegible, most likely a synonym for "set"] for the opening of the Egyptian Bosporus to large-scale navigation…"

2. A 2pp letter signed by de Lesseps and addressed to an intimate, perhaps the wife or secretary, of a certain "Mr. Bartleet." The letter is inscribed in a secretarial hand but the 84-year-old de Lesseps signed his name and dated it as June 29, 1890 at the center of the second page. On watermarked bifold stationery. The third and fourth pages are blank. Expected light paper folds, else near fine. 4.5" x 7."

In this letter to a well-wisher who had admired de Lessep's recently published "Souvenirs de Quarante Ans, Dédiés À Mes Enfants" [trans: "Recollections of Forty Years, Dedicated to My Children"] (Paris: Nouvelle Revue, 1887), de Lesseps reflected on the ultimate failure of his second major canal-building endeavor, the Panama Canal.

Translated in part, with punctuation silently added to improve clarity:

"All my thanks to Mr. Bartleet for his laudatory appreciation of my recollections of forty years [sic] and for the good sentiments which really touched me. My hope is that the large and useful Panama enterprise must triumph over all, despite all the obstacles which stemmed from the bad will of men, rather than material difficulties - it is the most logical way, the most direct, [and] by consequence it must be necessarily important to other projects. The works there have advanced, although one must have confidence in god [sic]. I address to Mr. Bartleet the expression of my best and devoted sentiments…"

The Suez Canal was a brilliant success; the Panama Canal an unmitigated disaster. The objective, means, scale and ambition of the projects were the same. This time, in Panama, it was to link up the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Isthmus of Panama. The Panama Canal Company was established in 1874 and work began in 1882. Some of the "material difficulties" which de Lesseps refers to in his letter included landslides as well as yellow fever and malaria epidemics. Lack of funds and bribery scandals derailed the project; the company was bankrupted by 1888 and de Lesseps and others were charged with corruption in the early 1890s. This might have inspired de Lessep's vague comments about the "bad will of men," who presumably unfairly blamed him for the failure of the project. After Americans purchased the rights to the Panama Canal, it was completed by 1914.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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