[COGNAC]: An important autograph manuscript by Henri Guilbault entitled Memoire sur un nouvel appareil de distillation continue au moyen de la vapeur ('Memoir on a new apparatus for continuous distillation by means of steam'), eighty-eight pages, folio, n.p., n.d. (early 1850s), in French. The neatly penned manuscript, containing various corrections and additions, as well as numerous variations (in particular significant unpublished sections) to the final published version, concerns the distillation of eaux-de-vie, and particularly cognac, from Saintonge, the region of France famous for its grapes. In Chapter III of the manuscript, comprising almost half of the original unpublished text, is entitled Observation sur le but general que j'ai du me proposer en ce qui concerne les produits de la Saintonge (Translation: 'Observation on the general goal that I had to set myself with regard to the products of Saintonge') and was edited to Observation sur le but general que je me suis propose (Translation: 'Observation on the general goal that I have proposed') in the printed version, Guilbault specifies the object of the research he is undertaking on distillation stating, in part, [unpublished] 'S'il est vrai que le commerce et la consommation en general regrettent generalement l'abandon que l'on a fait pendant quelque temps de l'ancien appareil de distillation, a cause de la qualite des produits qu'il donnait, il a fallu tendre dans un nouvel appareil, a produire le meme effet que l'ancien, a la condition cependant qu'il pourrait toujours etre employe dans tous les pays a distillation, quelque soit d'ailleurs la nature et l'origine des produits alcoolique…….[published] Les eaux-de-vie de Saintonge, si justement renommees, auxquelles on a donne a tort le nom d'eau-de-vie de Cognac, sont tellement superieures en qualite, a cause de leur gout et de leur arome special, que personne ne pense a convertir les vin blancs du pays en ce qu'on appelle des trois-six ou alcools d'un degre tres eleves.......Le but que j'ai du me proposer, pour le moment du moins, n'a pas pu etre de faire un appareil a produire des trois-six, mais bien de trouver le moyen de faire de bonnes eaux-de-vie, plus rapidement et a meilleur marche, quant a la fabrication, qu'aucun systeme employe dans ce pays et partout ailleurs. Ce n'est pas cependant qu'avec mon appareil, on ne puisse tres facilement faire des trois-six, si on le desire, puisqu'en rectifiant plusieurs fois un produit, on doit parvenir a en separer les parties aqueuses de celles alcooliques au moyen de la distillation, en continuant a employer la vapeur qui fait la base fondamentale de mon systeme' (Translation: [unpublished] 'If it is true that trade and consumption in general generally regret the abandonment that was made for some time of the old distillation apparatus, because of the quality of the products it gave, it was necessary to strain in a new device, to produce the same effect as the old one, on the condition however that it could always be used in all countries with distillation, whatever the nature and origin of the alcoholic products'…..[published] 'The Saintonge eaux-de-vie, so justly renamed, to which the name of Cognac brandy has been wrongly given, are so superior in quality, because of their special taste and aroma, that no one does not think of converting the white wines of the country into what are called three-sixes or alcohols of a very high degree……..The goal I must have set myself, for the moment at least, could not have been to make a device to produce three-sixes, but rather to find the means of making good spirits, much quicker and cheaper, as regards the manufacture, than any system employed in this country and everywhere else. It is not, however, that with my apparatus, one cannot very easily make three-sixes, if one wishes, since by rectifying a product several times, one must succeed in separating the aqueous parts from the alcoholic parts at the means of distillation, continuing to use the system which is the fundamental basis of my system'). The manuscript is bound together with Guilbault's own final printed copy of his work published by La Librairie Bourbaud, Saintes, in 1854, and includes patent diagrams of the distillation apparatus as well as numerous pencil annotations in his hand to the margins. Also included within the volume is the autograph manuscript of Guilbault's memoir entitled De l'education, des Moeurs, des Institutions politiques chez les anciens & de leurs resultats (Translation: 'On Education, Customs, Political Institutions among the Ancients & their results'), comprising over one hundred folio pages, with extensive corrections, and several other printed works authored by Guilbault. All are contained within their original paper wrappers and the ensemble neatly bound within a folio volume with a gilt stamped title to the spine and bearing the ex-libris of Martineau of Saintonge. Some light age wear, generally VG

It would appear that the process for distilling Saintonge's cognac eaux-de-vie, developed by Guilbault, the main purpose of which was to avoid direct contact between the fire and the boiler, contact which produces irregularities of taste in the alcohol, was not adopted as in 1870 coal was still used for the direct heating of boilers in the region of Saintonge.