The sale of Edouard de Max's furniture and books

At the Hôtel Drouot, in room no. 2, Edouard de Max's furniture and books have been scattered. There is something melancholy about seeing gathered together, as if in a bric-a-brac, in this gray room, everything with which this lover of shapes and colors had furnished his ground floor on rue Caumartin.
Rugs, which were once bright, hang, sad, here and there. Nostalgic busts fill a corner, like travelers disoriented in a waiting room. We see tables, boxes and then books pell-mell.
The crowd came in large numbers, compact, to attend this sale. Piece by piece, according to the bidding, everything is dispersed that was made to live together. And it seems that the auctioneer's hammer is each time awarding a little of what remained of the soul of the great artist.
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A few Parisian personalities, very few, came to collect souvenirs. Miss Jane Renouardt buys a lot. Mr. Sacha Guitry acquires precious fabrics for 250 francs.
The model of the Baudelaire monument, for which the artist served as a model and which is due to José de Charmoy, is awarded 14,000 francs to the latter's family.
An Assyrian belt, for which the great actor had a particular fondness, reaches 370 francs. A goldwork composition dedicated to the glory of Gaston IV of Béarn exceeds 4,000 francs.
And this is the endless list of books that their authors sent to the tragedian with the most beautiful dedications.
A novel by Sarah Bernhardt, "La petite idole", bearing on the flyleaf "A mon grand ami Edouard de Max", is sold for 175 francs.
At six o'clock, the sale was not yet over. Even the chairs and tables that furnished the kitchen of the faithful servant were auctioned off.

The sale, whose catalogue was presented by two sonnets by Maurice Rostand, reached a hundred thousand francs.