Description:

Napoleon III Emperor 1808 - 1873 Less than a year after he was deposed as Emperor of the French, Napoleon III writes to banker Russell Sturgis of Baring Bros., apparently inquiring about an investment in Colorado gold mines

Autograph Letter Signed "Napoleon," 1.5p, 5" x 8", front & verso. Camden place, [England], November 6, 1871. To "Sturgis," banker Russell Sturgis of Baring Bros., London. In French, not translated. Fine condition.

In the Franco-Prussian War, during the Battle of Sedan in July 1870, Napoleon III, Emperor of the French since 1852, was captured by the Germans. He was deposed on March 1, 1871, and the Third Republic of France was declared. Released by the Germans, he departed for England on March 19th. The next day, he disembarked at Dover, and continued to Camden Place, at Chislehurst in Kent. On Mach 27th, His Imperial Majesty Napoleon III and the Empress Eugenie visited Queen Victoria in Windsor Castle. On November 30, 1871, three weeks after the letter here offered was penned by Napoleon III, Queen Victoria visited Camden Place.

In this letter, Napoleon III writes of receiving a letter from "Le Major Lindsley (Thales)." Thales Lindsley was a civil engineer who had made extensive surveys of Colorado. The deposed Emperor underlines "tunnels de mines äó_ dans le Province de Collorado..." and mentions "$250,000."

From the June 9, 1865, Colorado Territory's Denver Gazette, in part, "A large number of old miners, together with several recently from the States, have, within a few days past, left for the mines of Park, Lake and Summit Counties... Several large companies that were organized last year are preparing to get machinery here, and go to work soon ... Major Lindsley is getting up a lot of tunnel machines, upon a model which he has proved a success, with which he expects to bore into the very bowels of the earth up there ... The time is not far distant when Colorado will produce an immense amount of silver bullion. Thus far ores have been worked here for gold only... "

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