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VIÉNOT, HENRY — LIVRE DE DÉPÔT DES TITRES & VALEURS No. 1Paris Notarial Securities Ledger, 1914–c.1945498 Manuscript Pages Documenting Aristocratic Wealth, Asset Deposits & Financial Survival Through Two World Wars
VIÉNOT, Henry, Notary Public
Livre de Dépôt des Titres & Valeurs No. 1
Paris, 1914–c.1945
Large folio, approx. 15 x 11.5 inches
Original quarter cloth over marbled boards
498 numbered manuscript pages, plus alphabetical index
A remarkable and highly unusual French notarial ledger recording the deposit of securities, titles, and financial assets held by or on behalf of prominent aristocratic and upper-class clients in Paris from the outbreak of the First World War through the mid-20th century.
Professionally maintained by Maître Henry Viénot, a Paris notary, this large folio manuscript ledger offers a rare primary-source view into the management, transfer, safeguarding, and survival of elite French and European wealth across some of the most destabilizing decades of modern history: World War I, the interwar period, the Great Depression, the German Occupation of France, and the Vichy era.
This is not a printed financial book or later historical account. It is an original working archival record: handwritten, indexed, officially authenticated, and filled with names, deposits, securities, estates, and transactions.
A Rare Archival Record of Wealth, Crisis & Continuity
The ledger begins in 1914, at the very moment Europe entered war. Entries from July and August 1914 appear to document urgent deposits of securities and valuables for safekeeping as families and institutions reacted to the outbreak of World War I.
Over nearly five hundred manuscript pages, the volume records deposits, withdrawals, transfers, estate matters, and securities holdings involving members of the French nobility, prominent financiers, and elite families.
As a result, the ledger provides an unusually granular record of how aristocratic and upper-class wealth was preserved, reorganized, inherited, and protected across a period of repeated crisis.
Historical Significance
This volume is especially compelling for the study of:
- French aristocratic wealth in the 20th century
- Notarial practice and asset custody in Paris
- World War I financial panic and liquidity concerns
- Estate settlement and succession among noble families
- Interwar and Depression-era capital preservation
- Financial continuity through the German Occupation and Vichy period
- European securities, colonial investments, and industrial capital
- Provenance research involving noble and elite French families
The ledger is both a financial document and a social-historical artifact, preserving the names, assets, and transactional lives of a class navigating war, political upheaval, and economic uncertainty.
Notable Contents & Historical PointsThe 1914 Liquidity Crisis
The opening period of the ledger is especially significant. Entries from July and August 1914 appear to show immediate movement of securities and valuables into notarial custody at the outbreak of World War I.
This provides a vivid, contemporary record of how elite French families and investors responded to wartime uncertainty, mobilization, and financial instability.
The De Broglie Succession
The ledger contains significant material relating to the estate or succession affairs of the Ducal House of De Broglie, one of France’s most prominent aristocratic families.
Such records may be of particular interest to researchers of noble genealogy, estate history, inheritance, and the financial structures underlying aristocratic continuity in the modern period.
Long-Term Accounts Through the 1940s
Certain accounts appear to span decades, including entries extending from the prewar period into the 1940s. These long-running records offer a rare longitudinal view of wealth preservation through World War I, the interwar years, and the period of German Occupation.
Industrial, Banking & Colonial Securities
The ledger records holdings and transactions involving important French and international financial entities, including examples such as:
- Suez Canal Company
- Saint-Gobain
- Banque de l’Algérie
- Imperial Ottoman Bank
These references connect the manuscript not only to aristocratic history, but also to the broader financial networks of French industrial, colonial, and international capital.
Notable Names & Client Roster
The ledger functions in part as a “Who’s Who” of elite French and European society, with entries involving aristocratic, financial, and socially prominent names.
Names represented include:
- Prince de Ligne
- Comtesse de Castries
- Marquis de Poncharra
- Georges Meyer
- Members of the De Broglie family
- Comte de Marmier
The presence of these names makes the ledger especially useful for provenance research, genealogical investigation, and the study of aristocratic asset management in early- to mid-20th-century France.
Official Authentication
The volume includes official stamps and handwritten attestation from the:
Tribunal Civil de Première Instance de la Seine
Dated:
February 6, 1922
This official authentication gives the ledger additional documentary weight and confirms its status as a formally maintained legal-notarial record rather than a private memorandum or informal account book.
Physical Description
Title: Livre de Dépôt des Titres & Valeurs No. 1
Compiler: Henry Viénot, Notary Public
Place: Paris
Date: 1914–c.1945
Format: Large folio
Size: Approx. 15 x 11.5 inches
Binding: Original quarter cloth over marbled boards
Extent: 498 numbered manuscript pages, plus alphabetical index
Text: Entirely manuscript, in a clear and elegant cursive hand
Language: French
The volume is substantial, professionally organized, and indexed alphabetically by client, making it far more accessible than many large manuscript financial archives.
Condition
Very Good.
Original quarter-cloth binding over marbled boards, secure and sound, with expected shelf wear, rubbing, and professional aging to the joints and extremities. The volume remains structurally solid despite its large folio format and heavy manuscript textblock.
Interior remarkably fresh overall. The manuscript entries are written in a consistent, elegant, and highly legible hand. Pages are generally clean and well preserved, with expected signs of handling from professional use.
A very well-preserved archival ledger of considerable size and historical interest.
Research & Institutional Importance
This appears to be an unstudied archival volume with substantial research potential.
It would be of interest to:
- Institutional archives
- University special collections
- Libraries focused on French history
- Researchers of aristocratic and noble families
- Economic historians
- Historians of World War I and Vichy France
- Provenance researchers
- Collectors of manuscript financial archives
- Collectors of French legal and notarial documents
- Students of European elite wealth and capital preservation
The ledger offers a rare opportunity to study the financial behavior of aristocratic and upper-class families not through memoirs or printed histories, but through their actual deposited securities, estate records, and notarial transactions.
Why This Volume Stands Out
This is a singular manuscript archive documenting elite French and European wealth across three decades of upheaval.
Its strengths include:
- 498 numbered manuscript pages
- Original Paris notarial securities ledger
- Begins at the outbreak of World War I
- Entries extending into the 1940s
- Official tribunal authentication dated 1922
- Alphabetical index of clients
- Numerous aristocratic and high-society names
- References to major industrial, banking, colonial, and international securities
- Potentially significant material relating to the De Broglie succession
- Rare insight into wealth preservation through war, depression, occupation, and succession
- Excellent research value for institutional or advanced private collection
A highly unusual and historically rich manuscript ledger: part financial archive, part social register, part legal record, and part survival map of European aristocratic wealth through the crises of the 20th century.
