[NEW CALEDONIA] Privately printed mourning letter sheet memorialising the death of Pierre-Auguste Thevenet at Nouméa, on 5 November 1917.

[Nouméa] : [printer unknown], 1917. Letter sheet with black mourning borders; bifolium, folding to 130 x 200 mm (260 x 400 mm when opened); first side with lithographically printed notice of the death of Pierre-Auguste Thevenet on 5 November 1917, and his burial on 6 November, with above it a list of the bereaved family members and friends on whose behalf the letter sheet was printed; inner sides blank; designed for mailing, the outer side with the handwritten address ‘Monsieur A. Zeitler, Api, Nouvelles Hébrides’ (postage stamp removed), and a folding flap to close the envelope; in fine condition.

A striking piece of mourning memorabilia produced in a French colonial context, but also with a double connection to Australia.

Pierre-Auguste Thevenet was born in Lyon, France on 1 November 1847 to Jean Pierre Francois Thevenet and Pauline Claudine Perrin. After settling in New Caledonia he married Australian woman Harriette Whiteman, who was born at Patrick Plains (Singleton), New South Wales, in 1852 and died in 1935. The couple had seven children. Pierre-Auguste passed away on 5 November 1917 in Nouméa.

The addressee, Adolphus Zeitler, was a wealthy merchant who owned a plantation at Ringdove Bay on the island of Epi (Api) in the New Hebrides. He had emigrated with his family from Germany to New South Wales via California in the 1850s. He was married to an Australian woman, Lizzie MacLeod.