Bidspirit auction | SILHOUETTE ÉTIENNE DE: (1709-1767)

SILHOUETTE ÉTIENNE DE: (1709-1767) - SILHOUETTE ÉTIENNE DE: (1709-1767) French Ancien Régime Controller-General of Finances under King Louis XV. L.S., De Silhouette , one page, folio, Versailles, 7th May 1759, to the Treasurer of France in Metz, in French. De Silhouette sends his correspondent the King's State Dispatch (no longer present) of the charges assigned to the salt taxes of the three bishoprics for the year 1758 and continues to state ´Je vous prie de tenir la main à son éxécution et de m´envoyer, le plus tôt que vous pourrez, vos observations pour la confection de celui de 1759, auxquelles vous n´oublierez pas de joindre les copies collationnées des titres concernant les nouveaux employis où mutations qui doivent y être faits´ (Translation: ´ I request that you ensure its execution and send me, as soon as possible, your observations for the preparation of the 1759 document, to which you will not forget to attach collated copies of the titles concerning the new employees or transfers that must be made therein´ ). With blank integral leaf. Some light staining to the left margin and lower edge, not affecting the signature or the text in the body of the letter. About VG Despite Étienne de Silhouette's short tenure as Treasury Chief, from March to November 1759, it caused him to become the subject of hostility and his penny-pinching manner led to the term ´à la Silhouette´ being applied to things perceived as cheap or austere. During this period an art form of growing popularity was a shadow profile cut from black paper. It provided a simple and inexpensive alternative for those who could not afford more decorative and expensive forms of portraiture, such as painting or sculpture. Those who considered it cheap attached the word ´silhouette´ to it, a term and art-form still in use today.