Exceedingly rare unsigned handwritten letter in French by Marie Antoinette, three pages on two adjoining sheets, 4.5 x 7.25, June 21, 1782. Marie Antoinette writes to her sister, Marie-Christine d'Autriche. The future Paul I, who is currently on a mission to the Kingdom of France for his mother Catherine II, was charged as an unofficial ambassador with requesting the benevolent neutrality of Louis XVI regarding the partition of the Ottoman Empire that Russia and Austria had been secretly planning since 1780. For his occasion, the Tsarevich and his wife Maria Feodorovna (née Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg) traveled incognito under the names of "comte et comtesse du Nord." Marie-Antoinette, at the request of her brother (the Austrian emperor Joseph II), paid special attention to her two hosts. In fine condition. This unsigned letter is typical of those that Marie Antoinette penned to people close to her; an extremely scarce format, we have offered only three other autograph letters by Marie Antoinette. A rare, superior example with intriguing royal content.
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