ALS in French, signed “G. Eiffel,” two pages on two adjoining sheets, 4 x 5.25, Rue de Prony letterhead, May 29, 1887. Letter to magazine publisher Gaston Tissandier, in part (translated): “I am much obliged for the article on…the Tower that you had inserted in the Nature…It seems to me impossible to do something more exact and more instructive. I am sure that all your readers will find it most interesting. Would not it be possible to make a separate print of it of a thousand copies that I could distribute?…Could you authorize me for it and could Mr. Masson take care of it? I would be most grateful if you would ask him and write me about it. I thank you again for the ten copies that you sent me.” Eiffel adds a brief postscript at the conclusion, “We could maybe liven up the matter by adding your first article dated 9 [September] 84.” In fine condition, with a trivial line of soiling to first page.
La Nature was a weekly French science magazine established in 1873 by the well-known aviator and chemist Paul Tissandier. Also a talented writer, Tissandier wrote the essay, ‘The Eiffel Tower 300 Meters: Description of the Monument, its Construction, its Mechanical Organs, its Purpose and Usefulness’ in 1889. The “first article” mentioned by Eiffel, featured a remarkable working design of the proposed tower, looming mightily over smaller comparison sketches of the Notre Dame cathedral and the Arc de Triomphe. The 1887 follow-up article concerned the structure’s progress, roughly two years away from becoming the entrance arch to the 1889 World’s Fair. An exceptional letter concerning Eiffel’s gratitude towards the promotion of his most famous endeavor, only a few months into its construction. Pre-certified PSA/DNA.
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