Frédéric Auguste BARTHOLDI describes and designs a fountain for Bordeaux.

Frédéric Auguste BARTHOLDI (1834.1904)

Autograph letter signed to the Inspector General of Bridges and Roads of Bordeaux.

One page in-4° on lined paper.

Paris. May 15, 1887.

“We will arrange for the bronzes (…) both for the lions’ heads and for the cornucopias. »

Magnificent document enriched with an original drawing by Bartholdi illustrating his fountain.

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“Mr. Inspector General of Bridges and Roads in charge of the municipal service of Bordeaux.

Mr. Inspector, I hasten to inform you in response to your very honored [letter] dated May 13, that I assumed all the foundations of the fountain were largely pierced ; but only for the passage of pipes.

We will arrange for the bronzes in such a way that they can be easily dismantled , by means of nuts which would fix them on rods sealed in the stone, both for the lions' heads and for the cornucopias to which two ends lead. small pipes that project water.

I am of the opinion that it is always useful to make these bronzes easy to dismantle for repairs. When necessary, Sir, you will be kind enough to give me your opinions and I will have the stone executed accordingly . Please accept, Sir, the assurance of my very distinguished feelings. Bartholdi. »

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This letter seems to relate to the fountain officially named “The rivers and sources going to the ocean” today located at Place des Terreaux, in Lyon, and more commonly called Fontaine Bartholdi.

Initially planned for the city of Bordeaux (which abandoned the project although launched 30 years earlier), the fountain was acquired by the city of Lyon thanks to its mayor, Antoine Gailleton, seduced by the work discovered during the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1889. The inauguration took place on September 22, 1892.