Lot 403

Pierre Curie 3x Signed ALS: "I was at the laboratory yesterday" - Dated 6 Months After Nobel Prize Win

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Pierre Curie 3x Signed ALS: "I was at the laboratory yesterday" - Dated 6 Months After Nobel Prize Win

Estimate: $3,000 - $5,000

Current Bid: $1,100

(2 Bids)

June 17, 2026 10:00 AM EDT
Live Auction
Wilton, CT, US

Description:

Pierre Curie
108 Boulevard Kellermann, Paris, France, May 29, 1904
Pierre Curie 3x Signed ALS: "I was at the laboratory yesterday" - Dated 6 Months After Nobel Prize Win
ALS

A 2pp autograph letter in French signed three times by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Pierre Curie (1859-1906): the first time at the conclusion, as "P Curie"; and the second and third time as partial signatures when writing out the name of his wife, Marie Curie, as "Mme Curie," on lines 1 and 6. May 29, 1904. Written at the Curies' residence at 108, Boulevard Kellermann, in the outskirts of Paris, France. Inscribed on both sides of a stock card with "Faculté Des Sciences De Paris… Cours de Physique" letterhead. Even toning, and with several isolated contemporaneous ink smears not affecting the legibility of the handwriting. Curie has overwritten the day of the month. A negligible crease affects the top edge. Lightly encapsulated behind plastic, which is probably reversible. Else very good. The sight size of the card is 5.5" x 4.25" while the encapsulation measures 6.375" x 5" overall.

Pierre Curie wrote this note of apology to an unidentified female correspondent who had hosted a gathering in the Curies' honor the previous evening, and which the scientific couple had accidentally missed.

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

"Madame,

We very much regret, Mme Curie and me, for having missed the engagement that you gave for us. I was at the laboratory yesterday at 5 1/2 in the evening [and] I found your letter, but it was already too late, and Mme Curie hasn't been going to the laboratory at this time. -

Please excuse us and accept my respectful salutations. -

P Curie

108 Bd Kellermann"

Was the party for the Curies intended to celebrate the couple's Nobel Prize win just six months earlier, in early December 1903? Pierre, his spouse and scientific collaborator/partner Marie Curie (1867-1934), and fellow French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel had been co-awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on radioactivity. For the Curies, the Nobel Prize yielded mixed results; while it resulted in a large cash stipend as well as professional promotions for both Pierre and Marie, the subsequent publicity proved more than a nuisance. New social obligations, as well as hounding from journalists and autograph-seekers, no doubt prevented the Curies from continuing their all-important research.

Curie mentions in his letter that "Mme Curie hasn't been going to the laboratory at this time." This was a reference to Marie Curie's pregnancy with the couple's second daughter, Ève Curie (1904-2007), who would be born six months later, in early December 1904. In Marie Curie's biography of her husband, "Pierre Curie," she writes in Chapter II: "In 1904 our second daughter, Eve Denise, came to us. I had, of course to interrupt my work in the laboratory for a while." Notably, both Pierre and Marie had been feeling tired and unwell during this period because of radium exposure. Ill health forced the Curies to postpone their Nobel Prize trip to Sweden until 1905.

Throughout early 1904 - in January, March, May, and June - Pierre Curie had presented a series of lectures on radioactivity and radium later published by the Société Française de Physique. A few weeks earlier, on May 9, 1904, Curie had presented a lecture based on work completed with Albert Laborde entitled [trans.:] "On the Radioactivity of Gases Released From Water From Thermal Springs" ("Œuvres de Pierre Curie: Publiées Par les Soins de la Société Française de Physique" (Paris: Imprimerie Gauthier-Villars, 1908), pp. 503-506. Later, in October 1904, Pierre was named a full professor at the Université de Paris and a department chair of physics at the Sorbonne. Marie was appointed Chef de Travaux - or Chief of Operations - at Pierre's laboratory in November 1904.

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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  • Dimensions: ss: 5.5" x 4.25"
  • Medium: ALS

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