Molière signed it

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

The lot 1166 from the sale of Bonhams and Butterfields on October 15 in Los Angeles is composed of three manuscripts of lawyers concerning Molière and his family. The most remarkable of the three includes the signature of the writer: "JB Poquelin Molière." It is an act dated 1667 authorizing an intermediary to raise funds to repay a loan.

The documents signed by Molière and his autograph manuscripts are so rare that they may be considered unavailable on the market. By searching in the databases at their disposal, the auction house did not find any other signature, with the exception of a previous auction of the same document, in 1860.

At the time, it obtained the second highest price at auction for a signature in France. That date of 1860 interested me. It is indeed at that time that Vrain-Lucas began to manufacture fake autographs for sale to the naive and noteworthy scientist Chasles, who quickly was in possession of documents in old French language that were signed Pythagoras or Cicero, among others ...

Back to Molière, whose authenticity of the document is of no doubt. It was placed high in the auction results at the time when high curiosity started about such documents, because it was already considered as an extreme rarity.

Now, despite reddish spots, the consignment is estimated at 40 K$.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Whatever the category of object, it is almost impossible to predict a price on a lot when it is almost unique in the market. In this case, the auction house had done its job: this lot was not distinguished by its estimate, which was probably nothing more than the reserve price, but by the demonstration in the press release and in the catalog to show that it was unique.

Molière also has a unique place in French literature and even global. Without going into a sterile game of hierarchy among the writers, there is no doubt that the work of Molière has no equivalent. The price is what is worth for its originality and scarcity: 330 K $ before fees.

An anecdote: I use Google Languages to start my translations from French to English. For helping me, this good Mr Google translated "Molière" into "Shakespeare"!