The Chess Monthly of January 1858 (page 22) published a Morphy game against "Mr. Charles St. Amant and another Parisian Amateur in consultation."
Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant (1800-1872)
A few pages later in that issue (page 29), a summary of Morphy's score in Paris was given and St. Amant's partner identified as "F. de L'A." The major collections of Morphy's games that appeared over the next 60 years included books from J.J. Löwenthal (1860), Max Lange (1859, 1881, 1894), Geza Maroczy (1909) and P. W. Sergeant (1916). All of these used "F. de L." or "F. de L'A" to designate St. Amant's partner.
Sergeant, for one, seemed intent on solving the mystery. He commented on St. Amant's partner in a footnote on page 150 (Dover edition, 1957) : "his present ally, whose name I cannot discover". Some 16 years later in his Morphy Gleanings (Printing-Craft, 1932), he noted on page 103 that “Bell's Life in London gives initials of St.Amant's partner as "M.F.de B." ” These initials suggest Monsieur Florimond de Basterot as a likely candidate. Frederick Edge in his book, The Exploits and Triumphs in Europe of Paul Morphy (London, 1859), reported that "Basterot" attended the Morphy-Anderssen match in December 1858 and Count de Basterot himself in the book, Traite Elementaire du Jeu des Echecs (Paris, 1863), related that he had tested Morphy with a chess problem. Unfortunately, Florimond de Basterot was not in Paris at the time of the consultation game. In his travel book, De Québec à Lima: journal d'un voyage dans les deux Amériques en 1858 et en 1859 (Paris,1860), Florimond Basterot reports departing Europe on 5 August 1858 and not returning until early March 1859. He apparently only met Paul Morphy in Morphy's final month in Paris. The "Basterot" in the Edge book, therefore, must refer to Florimond's father, Barthélemy de Basterot (1800-1887).
Remarkably, an important piece of the puzzle has been overlooked. Frederick Edge in the table of contents reveals:
Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant (1800-1872)A few pages later in that issue (page 29), a summary of Morphy's score in Paris was given and St. Amant's partner identified as "F. de L'A." The major collections of Morphy's games that appeared over the next 60 years included books from J.J. Löwenthal (1860), Max Lange (1859, 1881, 1894), Geza Maroczy (1909) and P. W. Sergeant (1916). All of these used "F. de L." or "F. de L'A" to designate St. Amant's partner.
Sergeant, for one, seemed intent on solving the mystery. He commented on St. Amant's partner in a footnote on page 150 (Dover edition, 1957) : "his present ally, whose name I cannot discover". Some 16 years later in his Morphy Gleanings (Printing-Craft, 1932), he noted on page 103 that “Bell's Life in London gives initials of St.Amant's partner as "M.F.de B." ” These initials suggest Monsieur Florimond de Basterot as a likely candidate. Frederick Edge in his book, The Exploits and Triumphs in Europe of Paul Morphy (London, 1859), reported that "Basterot" attended the Morphy-Anderssen match in December 1858 and Count de Basterot himself in the book, Traite Elementaire du Jeu des Echecs (Paris, 1863), related that he had tested Morphy with a chess problem. Unfortunately, Florimond de Basterot was not in Paris at the time of the consultation game. In his travel book, De Québec à Lima: journal d'un voyage dans les deux Amériques en 1858 et en 1859 (Paris,1860), Florimond Basterot reports departing Europe on 5 August 1858 and not returning until early March 1859. He apparently only met Paul Morphy in Morphy's final month in Paris. The "Basterot" in the Edge book, therefore, must refer to Florimond's father, Barthélemy de Basterot (1800-1887).
Remarkably, an important piece of the puzzle has been overlooked. Frederick Edge in the table of contents reveals:
F. de L., then, is the Baronne de L. Note that this detailed table of contents is not available in the Dover edition. David Lawson's Paul Morphy, The Pride and the Sorrow of Chess (New York, 1976) gives full names of many of the society ladies whose names had been truncated by Edge. Lawson discusses Duchess de la Trémoille and Princess Murat, for example, but even he refers only to the "Baronne de L" (page 158). Can anyone supply her full name?
Wanted: The full name of La Baronne F. de L'A
Wanted: The full name of La Baronne F. de L'A
14 comments:
Good eyes!
It was there all along, huh?
Finding minutiae about Morphy is more an Edward Winter type thing, but I'll help where I can.
pp. 155-156 of Triumphs of Paul Morphy discusses the Baronne (and places her both with St. Amant and withplaying Morphy at chess) and reads:
Some of the pleasantest hours passed by Paul Morphy in the French capital were spent at the Baronne de L's. This lady, who has long ranked as one of the great beauties of Parisian society, is renowned as a patroness of the arts. He friendship for the lamented Pradier has passed into history, and her salons" are the weekly resort of the most celebrated sculptors, painters, and authors of France. And no wonder, for the Baronne is goriously merry and witty, a true child of the sunny south. A Creole, from the French West Indies, she immediately took a liking to Morphy, "because," said she, "he is another lazy Creole like myself;" and she invited her acquaintances to come and see him. She would get Morphy opposite her, and St. Amant or Lequesne by her side to stop her when she was about making too serious a mistake, and would play game after game, making us all laugh the whole time with her charming anecdotes and jeux d'esprit. How she would amuse us when she declared that parties and late hours were killing her, and that they did kill her last season, and yet she was always as fresh as a newly plucked rose. When she found how fond Morphy was of music, the principal singers from the opera would be present. I remmeber one night she asked that the finest of living baritones, "the honey-voiced' Graziani, to play our hero at the odds of the Queen. Signor Graziani had caught the general enthusiasm, and was applying his leisure moments to chess with the energy of Staudigl, and had lately been taking lessons from Preti. He at first objected to play, from modesty, but the Baronne had determned he should, and she told him that, if he would play a game, Morphy would sing a duo with him afterwards. This was a sparkle of her fun, of coursel but Graziani played, not one, but three games, and he said: "If anyone asks me if I understand chess, I shall say, "Oh yes; I play sometimes with Mr. Morphy.'"
Sarah, thanks for that passage. Its was "there all along" in the rare original edition which is now available on Google Books. David Lawson wrote an introduction to the Dover edition but apparently did not notice the clue residing in the original table of contents. The Dover edition says "Unabridge [sic] republication of the original (1859) edition.", but obviously it is not.
Edge also credits La Baronne with Saint Amant's comback against Staunton in the 1843 match. He says "assured me but lately that she had no easy task instilling courage into her countryman..." (page 47). That she was so well known in 1843 also gives us some idea of her age.
Ah. I had read long ago (I don't even remeber where or what the original source might have been) that during the St. Amant-Staunton match in Paris that St. Amant had a nervous breakdown of sorts. As I remember it was supposedly a paralyzing fear, possibly of losing, whereas he has to be physically forced to attend the match. A certain woman took St. Amant under her wing and rebuilt his confidence (as an explantaion of his strong come-back in the latter part of the match - Staunton's explanation, of cource was his own heart condition that weakened his force). I never realized it was this same Baronne. Then again, I'm no mathematician and have problems putting 2 and 2 together.
Interesting....
"Her friendship for the lamented Pradier has passed into history..."
Jean Jacques Pradier (French, 1792-1852) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Pradier
Interesting enough, Pradier's wife was was Louise Darcet, upon whom Flaubert based his character Emma Bovary.
I don't think that helps, but.. you never know.
a curious similarity between Louise Pradier and la Barone de L.
from http://us.penguinclassics.com/static/html/essays/madamebovary.html :
Flaubert turned the real lives of Delphine Delamare and Louise Pradier into the imagined life of Emma Bovary.
Louise Pradier, the other woman who went into the making of Madame Bovary, came from a world very different. Louise had everything that Delphine Delamare could only imagine: great beauty, great wealth, a talented successful husband and a house in the heart of Paris where the famous of the day were delighted to gather. But Louise Pradier's life makes a sad story.
At the age of eighteen, to escape from her father, she married James Pradier, the most successful sculptor of the day, a man old enough to be her father. From their luxurious house on the Quai Voltaire she presided over a salon that brought together poets, painters and musicians, as well as the merely fashionable. "Beauty is de rigueur" Louise wrote on her party invitations. The entertainment she supplied to her guests was always memorably lavish. There were musicians dressed in antique costume. There were fancy-dress processions of gods and goddesses. The high point of the evening was the appearance of Venus, embodied in the divinely voluptuous person of Louise Pradier herself, making her entrance in a diaphanous classical tunic held together by a large diamond. With her tight amber-red curls, her dazzling blue eyes, her powerful shoulders and the curious golden down on her breasts, Louise Pradier was a woman who could plausibly play the goddess.
Like Emma, Louise was eventually destroyed by a combination of debt and her own scandalous legendary promiscuity. Her husband lost patience with her and cast her off.
I've have come across a "Baronne de Larinthie", but it is only a single phrase repeaated in various web sites. Its a tough one.
Guess I should post on CG to get Wilhelm, duPhart etc in on the fun.
My original source was wrong. M. Pradier's maiden name was Louise d'Arcet (not Louise Darcet). She a Pradier were divorced in 1845.
Maybe its really de la Arcet contracting to de L'A? Louise doesn't account for the "F.", however.
There are so many variations in the abbreviated name - everyone gives something a little different. I'm not even sure Louise d'Arcet was still living in 1858.
But Louise d'Arcet was associated with Pradier and closely resembles Morphy's lady in style and age. She was in Paris during the time of the St. Amant-Staunton match and her name, abbreviated, somewhat resembles that of whom you seek.
She may or may not be the lady, but I think she has her foot in the door.
Really, the thing that puzzles me is the part about being a Creole. Was the lady originally from New Orleans, or was the Creole reference just a joke?
From your Edge passage:
"A Creole, from the French West Indies, she immediately took a liking to Morphy..."
Today, I think of Martinique as French West Indie, but perhaps her family fled from Haiti like Morphy's family. Creole in this context, I believe, simply means a French person born in a French colony.
The French West Indies probably refers to Saint-Domingue, now Haiti, from which many of the non-native inhabitants fled during the famous slave uprising there just before the turn of the 19th century . It was once part of the French West Indies. Creole was a very specific term (until it was appropriated by other groups) to refer to the first and subsequent generations of New Orleans-born offsprings of the pre-American settlers of that area. Normally, it included French settlers (or those from some French colonies such as Saint-Domingue) but may also have included Spanish settlers, as New Orleans had changed hands from the Spain to the France just before the Louisiana Purchase. Being French alone wasn't enough to qualify, hence the Arcadians - French who moved from Canada to the area were never considered Creole.
For la Baronne to insist she was Creole can only mean she (or her parents - though not likely given her age) were born in New Orleans, and the Fr. W. Indies most likely means she or her parents came from Saint-Domingue.
According to http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Bu-Dr/Creoles.html
"In the West Indies, Creole refers to a descendant of any European settler,..."
I take her statement as meaning that she was born outside of France to parents who were established in the French West Indies. Its hard to say where she was born if her parents were driven out.
Thanks for searching! The good thing about a blog is that it is always available and perhaps someone versed in mid 18th century Parisian artists and models will come along and decipher La Baronne F. de L'A. At least we know now that at least one score of Morphy's involves female participation. Meanwhile, I am thinking about the next entry.
Well, I have the feeling if someone can manage to positively identify la Baronne, it will be through the St. Amant connection.
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