Les origines du cru de Haut-Brion-La Mission
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The claim to the Haut-Brion name traced back to 1682, with period newspaper clippings laid in. Inscribed by the author.
Ferbos, René
Les origines du cru de Haut-Brion-La Mission
Extrait des Actes de la Société Archéologique de Bordeaux, tome XXXIX
1924, Bordeaux, Imprimerie Cadoret
First Edition
$650 USD
Sale price
$650 USD
Regular price
Overview
In 8vo, large. Pp. [1] f.e., [2], 8, [2], [1] r.e.
First separate edition of Ferbos's tightly documented study of the origins of Château La Mission Haut-Brion, offprinted from tome XXXIX of the Actes de la Société Archéologique de Bordeaux. Ferbos traces the Lazarist fathers' ownership of the vineyard from a 1678 bequest and their installation as directors of the Bordeaux seminary in 1682, through more than a century of vineyard improvement, to the property's confiscation and sale as a bien national in 1792 (the history behind the "Mission" in Château La Mission Haut-Brion's name today). This copy is inscribed in French signed R.F. so presumably from the author, to "Edmond Bastide, archéologue, numismate, bibliophile [...] son ami R.F.", a particularly appropriate association copy since Bastide was the president of the very Société whose Actes had carried Ferbos's essay into print, and later the originator of the Prix Edmond Bastide for work in prehistory and archaeology. Laid loosely into the pamphlet are four contemporary newspaper clippings concerning the separate and considerably more famous Château Haut-Brion. Together, pamphlet and clippings form an unusually concentrated little dossier on Haut-Brion.
Inside the book
Ferbos traces the vineyard behind today's Château La Mission Haut-Brion through surviving documentary evidence. It begins with Jean de Fonteneil's 1678 bequest of the Haut-Brion and Arreguedeux vines to the Prêtres du Clergé de Bordeaux and the Congrégation de la Mission's installation as owners in 1682, confirmed by royal letters patent registered at the Parlement de Bordeaux the following year. Ferbos then reconstructs more than a century of Lazarist management: new vineyard plantings under the superior René Simon in 1683-84; the blessing of the chapel of Notre-Dame de Haut-Brion in 1698; a 1713 building contract with the architect Étienne Buissier; a 1729 declaration recording some 4,000 livres in annual net yield; and the purchase of further vineyard land from Arnaud Lauferte in 1730. The sequence ends with the dispersal of the Congrégation and the property's confiscation and sale as a bien national in 1792. Ferbos closes by observing that the estate still bears the name of the sons of Saint Vincent de Paul. His reconstruction is closely documented from individual acts in the Archives départementales de la Gironde, series G, supplemented by Bernadau, Vinet, Baurein, Féret's revision of Cocks's Bordeaux et ses vins, and Bertrand's Histoire des séminaires. Laid loosely into this copy are four contemporary newspaper clippings concerning the senior and separate Château Haut-Brion. One celebrates the estate following owner André Gibert's donation of it to the Académie de Bordeaux; another reports the donation itself, dated in manuscript 12 June 1927. The remaining two preserve a particularly revealing exchange: Maurice Ferrus's article of 27 April 1926 argues that Haut-Brion is the name of a locality shared by several properties rather than the exclusive designation of a single estate; Gibert's reply of 17 May defends his claim to the name. Ferbos's essay had already approached the same question historically from the other side, establishing the distinct Lazarist origins of La Mission Haut-Brion. Unconnected with Ferbos's text when printed, the clippings now form a contemporary pendant to his historical investigation of neighboring La Mission Haut-Brion.
Condition
Original wrappers, worn and chipped at the extremities, with an old adhesive-tape repair to the spine. Autograph presentation inscription from the author in ink on the front free endpaper. Four period newspaper clippings, dated 1926 and 1927, loosely inserted. Very good.
Dimensions (inches): 10 1/4 x 6 1/2 x 1/8
Why La Fenice likes it
A tiny pamphlet with a grand cru problem: who owns the name Haut-Brion? Ferbos goes back to seventeenth-century deeds to establish La Mission's distinct history; the newspaper clippings tucked into this copy show Bordeaux still arguing over the same name three years later. Add an author's presentation to the president of the Société Archéologique de Bordeaux, and this becomes a spicy little dossier of wine, history, and rivalry.
About the author
René Ferbos, member of the Société Archéologique de Bordeaux in the 1920s; no biographical dates traced.
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