Nicolon, Auguste-Marie-Philippe (sold)
Auguste-Marie-Philippe Nicolon (July 6, 1864 - January 10, 1896) was a French Foreign Legionnaire active for much of his career in French Indochina. He was born in Vaucluse, Avignon, France. He joined the French Foreign service on March 27, 1874, initially for a 5-year term. He studied at the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr through October 1, 1878. Graduating 10th in his class, he joined the 40th French Infantry. Nicolon is associated with the second 'Mission Pavie' (1888 - 1889) in Laos, of which he was third in command after Auguste Jean-Marie Pavie 1847 - 1925) himself and Pierre Paul Cupet (1859 - 1907). The exploratory mission left him in poor health, and he left Indochina for Paris in 1889, writing to Pavie: 'I must depart if I do not wish to leave here the little of me that remains - my bones and skin. Repeatedly troubled by fever, I am, as M. Massie says, at the end of my tether.' Immediately upon his return, on October 8, 1889, he was made a Chevalier de Legion d'Honneur. He spent 2 years recuperating in Paris, during which he married in 1891. Shortly thereafter he was sent to Senegal, Tunisia, and Algeria with the 2nd regiment of the French Foreign Legion. He witnessed and survived the 1894 massacre of Eugène Bonnier's (1856 - 1894) column by Tuareg warriors near Timbuktu. Afterwards he served briefly in Sudan before returning to France, where he died in January of 1896.
First scientific map of Laos.
Carte de al Région du Haut Laos Explorée en 1888-1889 par les Membres e a Comission d'Etude des Frontieres entre L'Annam et le Siam.
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Considered the first scientific survey of Laos, this seminal map was published immediately following the 1889 completion of the second Mission Pavie - the expedition that laid the groundwork for the French Protectorate in Laos. The map is signed by its creator, Auguste Jean-Marie Pavie, and dedicated to 'Monsieur Piquet', referring to Georges Jules Piquet (1839 - 1923), Gouverneur Général of French Indochina from 1888 - 1889, under whose auspices the Second Mission Pavie was undertaken. It further features manuscript content by another mission participant, Victor-Alphonse Massie (1854 - 1892), recommending the placement of a border watch post. The map further notes, in manuscript, Nam Youm (Laos), where the White Tai bandit leader Đèo Văn Trị, was then active. This map is significant on many levels: first as the result of one of the most extraordinary missions of exploration undertaken in Southeast Asia; second, as the first scientific survey of what is today northern Laos; third; as the underpinning of subsequent French Protectorate in Laos; fourth, as the personal copy owned by the Gouverneur Général of French Indochina who ordered the 2nd Mission Pavie. (more details)