6th Dec, 2025 10:00
Fine Art & Antiques
Sold for £380
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712-1778) - a six-line hand-written manuscript page, unsigned and undated but circa 1745-1751, 4to paper written in black ink to the right-hand side with space on the left with hand-written pencil note in a different hand, detailing women's use of face veils in Persia and probably written while working as Madame Dupin's (Louise Marie Madeleine Fontaine 1706-1799) secretary and compiling research for a projected (although ultimately unpublished) book about the history of women 'Ouvrage sur les femmes', with hand-written source note to the top left Piet: del: Val: l-2.p.105, probably referencing 17th century traveller Pietro della Valle's works Travels in Persia.
Loose translation right-hand side: In Persia and India, the Gaure [infidels / non-Muslim] or pagan women always came through the streets with their faces uncovered. They wore a veil that surrounded their faces without covering them. Left-hand note (possibly by Dupin) fainter but probably reads: the "Indian veil" of Persian and Indian women.
Notes: The wide-ranging research notes for Dupin's Ouvrage documented women's socio-economic and political status, and their resulting inequality. It is unknown why the work was unfinished and the notes were shelved at Dupin's home, Château de Chenonceau, which was also a literary salon attracting many prominent thinkers during the Age of Enlightenment. According to the Harry Ranson Center (University of Texas), which holds a major portion of Madame Dupin's work, research notes written by Jean Jacques Rousseau and Dupin were sold at a series of auctions in the 1950s. This example was acquired by Maggs Bros Ltd, antiquarian booksellers of London, and is sold in their paper folder.
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