Kim Bài de Résident supérieur en Annam. - Lot 145

Kim Bài de Résident supérieur en Annam. Chased gold plaque decorated with Chinese keys framing three dragons in clouds surmounting a river from which two carp gush, in the center, on two columns the characters BẢO ĐẠI SẮC TĂNG meaning "Emperor Bảo Đại offered as a present by imperial edict" and KHÂM SỨ, title given to Senior Residents translated literally as "Honor - Order"; on the reverse, TRIỀU DÃ "The Government and the people" and QUI MỸ "To be part of excellence". Fragment of suspension chain with two gold filigree beads. 88.7x44.4mm, gross weight: 34.46 g Annam, circa 1933. TTB to SUP This Kim Bài is identical to the one presented in 1936 to Eugène Guillemain, also Acting Superior Resident (Beaussant-Lefèvre study, sale November 20, 2019, expert Cabinet Portier, lot 237). Stamped on the reverse with the same a priori laudatory sentence, these two plates are charged with a hidden political message accessible only to Annamite scholars. The "Book of Changes" reveals its meaning in the list of all possible situations of living beings, among which QUI MỸ, 54th of the 64 Hexagrams, means: "Engagement of the youngest daughter, mismatched marriage" and : "Moment when beings are out of place, nothing can progress". Provenance: Léon Thibaudeau (1883)1946), French colonial administrator. A young administrator appointed to Annam in 1907, he acted as interim Superior Resident in Hué in 1933, during the delicate period of the young emperor Bảo Đại's return to Annam. He then continued his career in Cambodia, where he set up two fishing cooperatives and traveling medical clinics, but above all accompanied the young sovereign Norodom Sihanouk on his accession to the throne. A prisoner of the Japanese during the Second World War, he returned to France in 1946 and died shortly afterwards.