S.M. THE EMPRESS NAM PHUONG (1913-1963). - Lot 51

S.M. THE EMPRESS NAM PHUONG (1913-1963). Handwritten autograph letter from H.M. Empress Nam Phuong addressed to Mademoiselle Catherine Giry dated and located Imperial Palace, Hué, June 18, 1934, signed Nam Phương Hoàng Hậu. Accompanied by its stamped envelope with the precision in violet ink on the reverse "Letter from the Empress of Annam to Catherine". "My dear Catherine, your letter has pleased me enormously - I am very moved to see that you have not forgotten me. I thank you for your thoughtfulness and your prayers for my happiness. I have fond memories of my stay at "Aux Oiseaux". And it's with emotion that I recall the best years spent with our Mères-Communes - they spoiled and pampered me! I have missed her mothers very much since my return. I hope your health is good and perhaps one day you'll come to see me in my beautiful country? Please accept, my dear Catherine, the expression of my deepest and fullest sympathy. Nam Phương Hoàng Hậu". Dimensions: 26.9x21 cm. (folds and hole). Enclosed: A newspaper clipping titled "Future Empress" showing S. M. Nam Phuong at her window while still a student in France. Dimensions: 13.5x14 cm. Born into a Catholic family, under the protection of the Vicar Apostolic of Western Cochinchina, the future Empress Nam Phuong was sent at the age of 12 to Paris, France, to the "Couvent des Oiseaux" (secondary day school on Rue de Ponthieu following the dismantling of the convent of the same name in 1908), an elite boarding school run by the Canons of Notre Dame. In this 1934 letter, she evokes memories of her stay in France 9 years earlier. The year 1934 marked a turning point in the young woman's life: engaged to H.M. Emperor Bao Dai, she became "Royal Highness" following the imperial wedding celebrated in Hué from March 20 to 24, 1934. Obtaining the status of "Hoàng Hậu" or "Royal Highness" accompanied by the dynastic name "Nam Phuong" replacing her maiden name Jeanne Marie-Thérèse Nguyễn Hữu Thị Lan, the Empress signs this letter dated June 18, 1934 with her new patronymic "Nam Phương Hoàng Hậu" as is customary. Although we don't know the content of the letter to which the latter responds, we can legitimately assume that it contained a message of congratulations on her recent marriage to the Emperor of Annam from her former boarding school classmate.