  HD10697 is a nearby main-sequence star around which a planet candidate has
recently been discovered by means of radial-velocity measurements (Vogt et al.
1999, submitted to ApJ). The stellar orbit has a period of about three years,
the secondary minimum mass is 6.35 Jupiter masses and the minimum semi-major
axis is 0.36 milli-arc-sec (mas). Using the Hipparcos data of HD10697 together
with the spectroscopic elements of Vogt et al. (1999) we found a semi-major
axis of 2.1 +/- 0.7 mas, implying a mass of 38 +/- 13 Jupiter masses for the
unseen companion. We therefore suggest that the secondary of HD10697 is
probably a brown dwarf, orbiting around its parent star at a distance of 2 AU.
