Felix-Bienaime Feuardent

Felix-Bienaimé Feuardent was born at Cherbourg on 26 April 1819 and died in Paris on 11 August 1907⁷. Olivier Masson describes him as associate and then son-in-law of the antiquary C. Rollin, and the firm Rollin et Feuardent traded from 12 rue Vivienne in Paris and 61 Great Russell Street in London^1,2. His son Gaston Feuardent represented the firm in London from about 1868⁵.

The firm was the first Paris outlet for the finds of Luigi Palma di Cesnola. On 30 April 1870 Cesnola complained to Wilhelm Froehner that his first shipment to Rollin et Feuardent contained 30 heads like one sold for 505 francs and 20 better ones. According to Cesnola, "M. Feuardent" sold two for 1,100 francs but paid him 800 francs for everything, in depreciated Italian paper¹. Masson's note identifies this Feuardent as Felix, not Gaston¹. Feuardent's own account of the transaction is not recorded.

Feuardent was among the buyers at Cesnola's London sales of January and May 1871, and Masson says many pieces reached the Louvre through him and Hoffmann, in 1872¹. The British Museum's small 1871 lot, mostly terracottas, came through Rollin et Feuardent^3,6. On 24 November 1871 Cesnola dispatched 66 boxes holding 5,756 items to the firm in London⁴. A letter of Cesnola's names a "Feuardent" as offering to buy the whole collection and as the buyer of the Blacas collection for the British Museum; it is not stated whether Felix or Gaston is meant⁴.