Fortsas and perfume: Journées de Mariemont (4&5 October 2008)

The Royal Museum of Mariemont (Musée royal de Mariemont) at Morlanwelz –56 km south of Brussels and 28 km east of Mons – has an attractive roster of activities year-round, as can be inferred from its information bulletin called Bulletin d’information trimestriel (published every three months, free on request).

If anything in this country comes close to the J. Paul Getty Museum, it's Mariemont. The name (‘Mary’s hill’) refers to Charles V’s sister, Mary of Hungary, who built a castle in 1546. The ancient history of this noble abode stopped with a fire in 1794.

In the 19^th C, a family of industrialists called Warocqué, owners of coal mines in the immediate vicinity, built a new stately home amid facilities for their workers. One of the most prolific collectors of this family was Raoul Warocqué, whose collection became the basis of a state-owned museum.

Warocqué’s collection comprised old archeological finds from the region, as well as artefacts from Egypt, the Far East (China, Japan), and the Greek and Roman period, and porcelain from Tournai, now placed in juxtaposition with contemporary ceramics. There is also the arboretum around the museum, dotted with statues, such as Rodin’s Burghers of Calais.

Raoul Warocqué was a bibliophile collector, and Mariemont houses a library of rare printed books, bindings, artist books and original editions, ranging in date from the 15^th until the 21^st century. It also comprises almost 10,000 autograph letters, medals and prints, among others nearly 600 by Félicien Rops.

This year, the Museum opens house on Saturday and Sunday 4 & 5 October 2008 to present the collections from an olfactory standpoint. Les parfums de Mariemont is the organizing theme.

The museum is currently hosting an international exhibition (until 30 November 2008) related to perfume in Antiquity: Parfums de l’Antiquité. La rose et l’encens en Méditerranée. The exhibition shows artefacts from numerous institutions abroad, and has a catalogue that promises new scientific findings.

But back to the Activity Days, which can count on the collaboration of three curators with ties to rare book holdings: Bertrand Federinov, Claude Sorgeloos, and Frédéric Van de Vijver.

Bertrand Federinov is director of the Rare Books Department at Mariemont. Frédéric Van de Vijver is librarian at Mariemont. Both serve as guides on visits to the collection.

Federinov hosts a visit entitled ‘Sentir les livres. Approche olfactive des collections de la Réserve Précieuse.’ (Sunday, 5 October, 3 p.m.) Recently, Federinov compiled a catalogue of imprints from Mons from the Mariemont holdings: Quatre siècles d’imprimerie à Mons. Catalogue des éditions montoises (1580-1815) du Musée royal de Mariemont (monograph no. 12 of Musée royal de Mariemont, no ISBN, legal depot no. D/2004/0451/102).

Van de Vijver hosts two kinds of tours to the holdings. One is ‘Galanterie et raffinement capiteux des livres de la marquise de Pompadour, la comtesse du Barry, Marie Leszcynska et Madame Victoire’ (Saturday, 4 October at 2 p.m., repeated on Sunday at 11 a.m.) and the other is ‘Encens et souffre entremêlées aux parfums libertins dans les salons du Siècle des Lumières. L’encyclopédie de Diderot et d’Alembert, un diffuseur de savoir et d’idées révolutionnaires.’ (Saturday, 4 October at 5 p.m.)

Claude Sorgeloos, director of the Rare Books Department at Belgium’s Royal Library, will guide a tour to the exhibition ‘Renier Chalon, alias Fortsas.’ He will approach it with ‘L’odeur facétieuse du cochon.’ (Saturday 4 October, 4 p.m.)

Sorgeloos is one of the curators of the Fortsas exhibition, which has been running at Mariemont from 5 July 2008 onwards, and which is closing 5 October 2008. So the weekend at Mariemont is the last chance to see it.

Subtitle to the exhibition ‘Renier Chalon, alias Fortsas’ is: ‘Le canular en Belgique: toute une tradition!’ (the hoax in Belgium: an entire tradition). The museum’s website refers to a recent hoax called ‘Bye Bye Belgium’, presented about a year ago by the news department of the state-owned French speaking television network, which caused quite a stir in prime time.

Renier Chalon (1802-1889) was an avid collector of coins and rare books. He was born in Mons, but a quiet administrative career brought him to Brussels, where he was at leisure to pursue his numismatist and bibliophile predilections, as well as his passion for pranks.

Chalon fathered a hoax known under the name of Fortsas, short for a soi-disant Comte de Fortsas, and an equally fictitious sale of the library of this elusive count, which, with catalogue and all, was promised to be held at Binche, on 10 August 1840. Book collectors from all over Europe descended there in vain.

A few other blogs have recently referred to Fortsas, here and here, both without mention of the exhibition at Mariemont, which is said to paint a far more complex picture of Chalon, and which provides a Belgian history of the prank from the 19^th century until this day.

Mariemont has published the following monograph on Chalon: Reinier Chalon alias Fortsas: un érudit malicieux au mitan du XIXe siècle (Monographies du Musée royal de Mariemont no. 16, publishing year: 2008). Authors: François de Callatay, Claude Sorgeloos. ISBN: 2-930469-19-6.