THE DAUPHINE'S WEDDING. DIAMOND DEALERS. Letter written from - Lot 84

THE DAUPHINE'S WEDDING. DIAMOND DEALERS. Letter written from VERSAILLES on February 21, 1747, by BREAND, addressed to a Dear Young Lady, at the home of Mr. VANDERMAIRE, Diamond Merchant, on Schutterschofstraat in Flanders, in ANTWERP. 3 pages, in-8°. A beautiful letter in which he recounts in detail the marriage of Marie Josèphe of SAXONY, aged 15 (she would become the mother of Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, and Charles X), to LOUIS of France, Dauphin of Vienna, eldest son of Louis XV (from his second marriage), and his diamond and gemstone business: “I have the honor of informing you that a journey of two hundred leagues, which I have just completed to fetch the Dauphine, was the reason I did not have the honor of writing to you sooner… I shall not give you a long description of the Dauphine or of the festivities that were held. I have the honor of telling you only that she is, above all, a well-rounded young woman—a bit petite but young, with a round face, a shapely figure, very lively, not at all haughty, of a very good disposition, and very fond of her husband as well as the people in her entourage. She arrived on Thursday the 9th of this month at 10:00 a.m. and was married at 1:00 p.m. After Mass, she had dinner with the entire royal family, where she appeared as at ease as if she had lived there all her life. After dinner, there was a masquerade ball and a light display that cost more than one hundred thousand livres. The next day there was a masquerade ball, and everyone was admitted; there were light meals and refreshments for all the masked guests, amounting to more than twenty thousand glasses of champagne; the same illuminations were displayed. On Saturday, a comedy; on Sunday, an opera; on Monday, a masquerade ball…"