Rare Locked Letters from the Boncompagni Ludovisi Archive (Villa Aurora).
3 videos • 264 views • by Letterlocking videos This Boncompagni Ludovisi archive (Villa Aurora) includes one of the only known extant examples in the world of the "removable lock" letterlocking technique used in correspondence by Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI, and other French regents. Two other examples show letterlocking techniques used by Empress Maria Theresa and the Kings of Spain in the 18th-century. These rare collections contain high percentages of their locking mechanisms. Thanks to HRH Princess Rita and the late HRH Prince Nicolò for providing our team with access to their family's private archive. We would not have known the "removable lock" existed without access to their collections.