Colonization French

French Colonization of Virginia & Kentucky--A Utopian Vision!

A joint stock company prospectus relating to the Compagnie de Colonisation Américaine, a concern allocating parcels of land in Virginia and Kentucky, granting 100 acres of land to one Louis Philibert Brun d'Aubignosc. The document, Series B, Number 9563, is in French, and was signed in Paris, France on July 1, 1820. At the base of the central explanatory panel, the document has been signed by company representatives as "De Redern et Cie" at lower right, and signed by the American consul in France at lower left. Countersigned verso. Blindstamped with the seals of the U.S. Consulate in Paris and the Compagnie de Colonisation Américaine along the bottom. The central panel is bordered on either side with columns of fifteen coupons each, where blanks in both coupons have been numbered as "9563." The whole is enclosed by an ornamental border. Trimmed close, with marginal loss to the bottom border. Else a clean copy in near fine condition. Currently loosely encapsulated under sealed plastic labeled "John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, Part 6 (October 12, 2004)". 13.75" x 18.125". Extremely rare; OCLC locates only three copies held by public institutions.

The stock certificate offered 100 acres of land, at 1300 francs a share, as part of a 1,849,000-acre property in Virginia and Kentucky owned by the Compagnie de Colonisation Américaine. The firm was founded by Jean Sigismond Ehrenreich, Comte de Redern (1761-1841), a Prussian diplomat, intellectual, entrepreneur, and eccentric. The central panel describes the division of land sales between individual colonists and speculators, the different classes of shares, commercial potential, future improvements, etc. This is one of 12,000 shares constituting Series B.

The Comte de Redern had befriended Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825), the socially conscious French businessman, while Redern served as Prussian Minister in London in the early 1790s. The two men embraced similar values, including humanism and Utopianism. Redern and Saint-Simon developed a financial partnership in order to jointly purchase French national lands during the 1790s.

In the early 1800s, Redern invested heavily in both industry and land. In 1820, the time this certificate was issued, "his vast enterprises crashed around him. To escape his creditors, he fled to Brussels, and from there to Holland, where he was imprisoned. He took to practicing hypnotism, underwent a religious conversion...after many years he was allowed to return to France, where he resumed his philosophical studies" (Frank E. Manuel, The New World of Henri Saint-Simon (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1956), p. 107.

The Utopian experiment had come to an end.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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