Jean-François CHAMPOLLION brings together Egyptology enthusiasts in Lyon.

Jean-François CHAMPOLLION (1790.1832)

Autograph letter signed “JF Champollion the young” to François Artaud.

A small in-4° page. Restoration on the fourth leaf.

Autograph address and postal marks.

The wax seal closing the letter was stuck under the signature.

Paris. ^November 1 , 1823.

“I address to you, my dear Egyptian, Mr Bowes Wright who […] visited the sacred land and spent many hours among the colonnades of Thebes or in the tombs of the Pharaohs. »

Rare letter from the father of French Egyptology connecting two enlightened lovers of Pharaonic treasures.

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 To Mr. Artaud, Curator of the Museum, Director of the School of Fine Arts, Palais St Pierre. Place des Terreaux. Lyon.

 I am addressing you, my dear Egyptian, Mr. Bowes Wright who, happier than us, visited the sacred land and spent many happy hours among the colonnades of Thebes or in the tombs of the Pharaohs. Please make it easier for him to see your museum and anything that might interest him in your city; when you know him you will do for him alone, what I ask you to do through me; farewell my dear friend; always yours at heart. JF Champollion the younger.

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The archaeologist François Artaud (1767-1838) directed, from 1812, the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon where he brought together the antiquities of Lugdunum and in particular a vast collection of ancient mosaics. It was in 1820 that he met Champollion who maintained his passion for Egypt.

Impressed by Champollion's scientific challenge and his decipherment of hieroglyphs in 1822, Artaud sent him casts of small Egyptian objects from the collections of the Lyon museum and many other documents, such as the lithograph of the large relief of Ramses preserved among the descendants by academician Jean-Baptiste Ras de Maupas. At the same time, he enriched his private practice, until then mainly devoted to Roman Antiquity, with Egyptian works of art.

John Bowes Wright (1779-1836), English traveler, Egyptologist and collector, was a friend and correspondent of Champollion.