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Feuardent, Gaston L.

[Autograph letter, signed, regarding the inscriptions on the ancient bronze crabs that once supported Cleopatra’s Needle.]

New York, [ca. 1881]. 7” x 8.5”, in ink, on Feuardent’s letterhead. CONDITION: Very good, slight toning.

An intriguing letter by a renowned archaeologist and numismatist reporting on his effort to obtain the text of the inscriptions on the Roman crabs that once supported Cleopatra’s Needle, evidently in connection with the creation of a medal commemorating the installation of the obelisk in Central Park.

Likely addressed to someone involved in the production of the medal, the letter reads in full:

My dear sir. The whole day has been employed to try to get the inscriptions of the crabs. Comd. Gorringe has been very active about that matter but he will not know Mr. Hurlbert’s answer before this evening and he will address it to you here. (How stupidly Mr. Hurlbert is acting all the time in this matter).

I have gone to Thompson and Moreau to have the plate made.

Yours respectfully,

Gaston L. Feuardent.

Thompson desires to have tomorrow as early as possible a planchette of the exact size and thickness of the medal.

Feuardent, a French-trained archaeologist, expresses here his frustration with the difficulty he is encountering in his efforts to obtain the inscriptions on the Roman crabs, apparently due to the obstruction of journalist William Henry Hurlburt, one of the driving forces in bringing Cleopatra’s Needle to New York. Lieut. Commander Henry Gorringe, another key figure in the story of Cleopatra’s Needle, seems to be acting as a go-between for Feuardent. Additionally, Feuardent alludes to having New York City printers Thompson and Moreau create a plate for some unspecified purpose and notes Thompson’s request for a planchette of “the medal”—almost certainly a reference to the aforementioned commemorative medal, which was cast in gold, bronze and white metal, and some of which were presented to honor students of New York City schools. What exactly Thompson and Moreau’s role would have been is somewhat unclear. As they were printers, perhaps they printed a prospectus or text of some sort relating to the medal, but the plate mentioned and Thompson’s need for a planchette don’t necessarily align with this speculation.

Cleopatra’s Needle, an Egyptian obelisk created and erected in Heliopolis, Egypt circa 1425 BCE, then moved to Alexandria by the Romans in 12 BCE, was presented by Egypt to the United States in the 1870s. The immense task of transporting the obelisk to the U.S. was funded by William Henry Vanderbilt, urged by journalist William Henry Hurlbert, and undertaken by Lieut. Commander Henry Honychurch Gorringe of the U.S. Navy. The “needle” was installed in Central Park, behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in 1881. Two of the Roman crabs, which were originally created to support the damaged base of the obelisk, were presented to the Museum, and new bronze crabs were cast to replace them. 

Gaston L. Feuardent (1843–1893) was a New York based dealer in “Pre-historic, Egyptian, Greek & Roman Antiquities, Coins, Medals, Gems & Numismatic Books,” as indicated on his letterhead. According to his obituary in the New York Times, he was an archaeologist and numismatist of rare distinction…There was no museum in Europe he had not visited and as a numismatist there were no rare coins in the cabinet of the British Museum or the Louvre with which he was not familiar…The man’s memory so far as Greek or Roman history went was marvelous. The bit of gold, silver or bronze imparted to him at once its story…Lieut. Commander Gorringe submitted to Mr. Feuardent the Greek inscriptions, with the coins found at or near the Alexandria obelisk now in Central Park, and the material was carefully studied by Feuardent, who presented the best monograph on the subject which is known.”

REFERENCES: D’Alton, Martina. The New York Obelisk or How Cleopatra’s Needle Came to New York and What Happened When it Got Here (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993), pp. 3–63; “Obituary: Gaston L. Feuardent,” The New York Times, June 13, 1891.

Item #8807

Price: $750.00

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