Signed reply by Restaut (?) to a friendly letter from Antoine Duchesne (1708–1795), accepting an invitation to dinner.
Paris, 11 may 1755.
Letter signed Restaut (?), 1½ pp., 4to (218 x 170 mm), armorial wax seal; fold marks, small tears.
A very rare example of a manuscript letter written entirely in mirror writing.
This writing technique consists of forming reversed characters that can be read with the aid of a mirror. It was a highly unusual practice in eighteenth-century correspondence. Famously associated with Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks, mirror writing could be employed as a game, a display of graphic virtuosity, or a means of concealment.
The technique is particularly striking here in a letter sent to Versailles and addressed to Antoine Duchesne (1708–1795), architect, painter and writer, and prévôt des Bâtiments du Roi.
A pencil note attributes the letter to “Restaut.” The author may possibly be the grammarian and jurist Pierre Restaut (1696–1764).
1 000€
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