“Mademoiselle Chevalière d’Éon” [= Charles-Geneviève d'Éon de Beaumont (1728–1810)].

Autograph letter signed "La Chre D'Éon".

Tonnerre, 25 January 1780.

Folio, 1 p.

An autograph letter signed in the feminine form by the celebrated transgender pioneer, diplomat, soldier and spy Charles-Geneviève d'Éon de Beaumont, better known as the Chevalier(e) d'Éon.

The letter concerns the shipment of a cask of wine, but what gives the document its particular significance is not its commercial content but the form in which it was written. Following the royal decree of 1777 recognizing d'Éon as female and requiring the adoption of female dress, d'Éon increasingly signed correspondence as "La Chevalière d'Éon", employing the feminine form of the title chevalier. In the present letter the writer concludes with the feminine formula "Votre très humble et très obéissante servante" before signing "La Chre D'Éon", providing a striking example of the female identity publicly assumed during the final three decades of d'Éon's life.

The letter concerns the shipment of a cask of 1779 white Tonnerre Burgundy wine to a Paris lawyer named Guillaume. D'Éon details the preparation of the cask for transport and requests a receipt from the recipient. A contemporary acknowledgment of receipt confirms the successful delivery five days later.

One of the most remarkable figures of eighteenth-century Europe, d'Éon served Louis XV as diplomat, military officer, and secret agent. During diplomatic missions in Russia and England, d'Éon became a central figure in the secret intelligence network known as the Secret du Roi. Speculation concerning d'Éon's sex became an international sensation during the 1760s and 1770s, culminating in official recognition as a woman by the French Crown. The resulting public identity has made d'Éon one of the earliest and best-documented transgender figures in European history.

Condition: partially browned, otherwise good.