EMBASSY

[Sir Edward Malet, diplomat.] Autograph Letter Signed to Sir Robert Head, regarding a dinner engagement at ‘Countess Brockdorff’s’.

Author: 
Sir Edward Malet [Sir Edward Baldwin Malet, 4th baronet] (1837-1908), British diplomat, Consul-General in Egypt, 1879-1883 [Sir Robert Garnett Head (1845-1907), 3rd Baronet, of Rochester]
Publication details: 
14 January 1893; on letterhead of the British Embassy, Berlin.
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, and folded once for postage. With the item’s worn envelope, with ‘British Embassy, / Berlin.’ printed on the damaged flap, addressed by Malet to ‘Sir Robert Head Bt. / 97 Zimmer Strasse’, and initialed by him at bottom-left, ‘R B Malet’. The letter, which is signed ‘Edward B Malet’, begins: ‘Dear Sir Robert Head, / My wife will be very happy to take you and Lady Head to Countess Brockdorff’s on Monday at 3 1/2.

[Lord Salisbury's Foreign Office and 1897 insurrection in Crete.] Five Autograph Items by Sir Martin Gosselin of British Embassy in Paris, including drafts of private despatches to Salisbury on meetings with French Foreign Minister Gabriel Hanotaux.

Author: 
Sir Martin Gosselin, diplomat [Cretan insurrection of 1897; Lord Salisbury; Crete; Ottoman Empire; Gabriel Hanotaux; International Squadron; Admirals' Council; Great Powers; Greece]
Publication details: 
The five items written by Gosselin between April and November 1897, from the British Embassy in Paris.
£650.00

In January 1897 an insurrection by the Greeks in Crete led to the Ottoman Empire, of which it was still part, declaring war on Greece. The following month, as Turkish rule over the island crumbled, six 'Great Powers', including Britain, France, Russia and the Germans, despatched an 'International Squadron' of their ships to Cretan waters.

[British Embassy Medical Officer in Cold War Moscow and Bucharest.] Unpublished typed account by T. V. Humphreys of his journeys around Romania and Russia during five years of service, also describing medical aspects and 'Soviet methods of medicine'.

Author: 
Col. Thomas Victor Humphreys (b.1922), O.B.E., M.B., B.Ch., B.A.O, Royal Army Medical Corps, British Embassy Medical Officer at Moscow and Bucharest [USSR; Soviet Union; Iron Curtain; Russia; Romania]
Publication details: 
December 1952 to January 1953. Romania and the USSR (Russia). Russian locations: Moscow, Leningrad, Peterhof, Tsarskoe-Selo, Gatchina, Pavlovsk, Kharkov, Kiev.
£1,250.00

Biographical details regarding Humphreys are hard to come by. He features in two Times reports of the indisposition of the pianist Cyril Smith in Moscow in 1956 (8 May and 9 June). On his award of the OBE in the 1958 New Years Honours List he was described as 'lately First Secretary and Medical Officer at Her Majesty's Embassy in Moscow'. On his retirement in 1987 he was described as 'Col. T. V. Humphreys, O.B.E., M.B., B.Ch., B.A.O.

[ 'The Hudson Case'. ] Manuscripts of Elliot's defence of Russell and Sir Henry Elliot in controversy over Italian ambassador Sir James Hudson, including 'unpublished part', letters by Countess Russell and Sir Henry Elliot, annotated pamphlet.

Author: 
Hon. George Elliot [ George Francis Stewart Elliot ] (1822-1901) [ John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (1792-1878), Prime Minister; Sir James Hudson (1810-1885); Sir Henry Elliot (1817-1907) ]
Publication details: 
[ London. ] 1881, 1885 and 1886.
£1,800.00

A son of the Earl of Minto, Elliot (hereafter GSE) was Russell's brother-in-law and one of his two executors. The events described in the present collection occurred while GSE was living with Russell, who was then Home Secretary, as his private secretary; and the controversy is over the claim that the replacement of Sir James Hudson as Italian ambassador by GSE's brother, the future Sir Henry Elliot (1817-1907), was an 'act of nepotism' on the part of Russell.

[ Soviet Poland, printed periodicals. ] Three numbers of 'Polish Facts & Figures | Issued by the Press Office of the Polish Embassy in London'.

Author: 
[ Soviet Poland; the Polish Embassy in London; Jimmy Shields (1900-1949) ]
Publication details: 
[ The Press Office of the Polish Embassy in London. ] Three numbers: No. 5, 16 July 1946; No. 14, 19 September 1946; No. 51, 28 June 1947. [ Printed by St. Clements Press Ltd., Portugal Street, London, W.C.2.' ]
£90.00

The three items are each 4pp., 4to, in bifoliums, and uniform in design. Each carrying a number of articles in small print. Each on aged paper and with wear to margin along outer edge, but with text clear and undamaged. No. 5 includes articles titled: 'Referendum Results', 'Poland's National Day', 'Polish-British Relations', 'Poland's Independence and Freedom Secured | M. Bierut speaks to Democratic Party Congress', 'A Polish Economic System'. No. 14 has in it articles on 'Mr. Byrnes v.

[ Sir Hamilton Seymour, diplomat. ] Calling Card, carrying an Autograph Note to 'Baron Ward' on seating arrangements.

Author: 
Sir Hamilton Seymour [ Sir George Hamilton Seymour ] (1797-1880), British diplomat
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated.
£30.00

For more on Seymour, who held diplomatic posts in Italy, Portugal, Belgium and Russia, see his entry in the Oxford DNB. The 4.5 x 7.5 cm card carries the words 'Sir Hamilton Seymour | Ministre d'Angleterre' in copperplate. Above this Seymour has written, in a difficult hand, what appears to be: 'My dear Baron Ward | I want you to shew your finess [sic] in your placing Machen & Mr Caird. | Yrs.'

[ Longmans, London publishers. ] Prospectus for Clarke Abel's 'Personal Observations, made during the Progress of the British Embassy through China', and list of Longmans books 'Published in the Course of August and September [1817]'.

Author: 
Clarke Abel, Physician and Naturalist to the Embassy [ Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, of Paternoster-row, London Booksellers; Longmans; East India Company ]
Publication details: 
Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-row. The prospectus is undated; the list of publications is dated 'Oct. 1817.'
£60.00

The two items are disbound, but attached to one another. On aged and worn paper. PROSPECTUS: 1p., 12mo. Reads: 'Mr. Abel's Account of the Embassy to China. | In the press, and immediately will be published, | In One Volume, Quarto, illustrated by Maps and other Engravings, of Landscape, Natural History, Geology, &c.

[Charles Conway Thornton, Second Secretary at the British Embassy, Berlin.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Conway Thornton') to Lady Florence Head, providing a detailed 'list of times & places' for a reception in the Stadtschloss, Berlin.

Author: 
Charles Conway Thornton (1851-1902), successively Second Secretary at the British Embassy, Berlin, and Consul-General at Budapest [Lady Florence Head, wife of Sir Robert Garnett Head (1845-1907)]
Publication details: 
Berlin [on British Government embossed letterhead]. 19 January 1893.
£45.00

5pp., 12mo. The letter proper is three pages long, on a bifolium, and is accompanied by a two-page 'list of times & places' on a separate leaf. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. With 18 x 23 cm letterhead, on the cover of which Thornton has written 'To | Sir Robert Head. Bart. | III | Zimmer Strasse 97 | Hier.', with his signature 'C. Thornton' in the bottom left-hand corner.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Julian Pauncefote') to his subordinate at the Washington Legation, 'Barry'.

Author: 
Julian Pauncefote (1828-1902), 1st Baron Pauncefote, British diplomat
Publication details: 
19 September 1891; on letterhead of the British Legation, Washington (with that city replaced in manuscript by 'Newport R.S.')
£56.00

12mo, 4 pp. In bifolium. 42 lines. Clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. He thanks him for the news of the 'progress of repairs &c at the Legation', and approves 'of your having ordered extra help to scrub the floors after all the mess which no doubt the workmen left behind them "more americano".' The former state of the 'kitchen flue [...] may account for the apparent inefficiency of the old Range'. He will return on the 'arrival of the next F.O. Bag on Monday'. Gives his travel plans.

Autograph Letter, in the third person, to Captain Mason.

Author: 
Thomas Francis Bayard (1828-1898), Secretary to President Grover Cleveland [Lord George Hamilton]
Publication details: 
24 May 1894; on letterhead of the Embassy of the United States, London.
£56.00

12mo, 1 p. Thirteen lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged and foxed paper. Acknowledging 'Captain Mason's note of yesterday', and in response to the request of 'Lord George Hamilton and the Committee', 'Mr Bayard' states that he will 'respond with much pleasure to the toast of "the United States" tonight at the banquet to the Admiral and officers of N.SS Chicago'.

Three Autograph Notes and Letters Signed "N Koudacheff" to [Harold] Beresford-Hope, diplomat (Washington etc).

Author: 
Prince Nicholas Koudacheff, Russian diplomat.
Publication details: 
Imperial Russian Embassy, Washington, [1909]
£100.00

Total 9pp., 8vo, good condition. The note is an acceptance of an invitation. In one letter he is enlisting Hope's help in finding a "John Mitchell" (formerly known as Mirko Tranovitch)in Alberta (finding out also if he exists). Two men are enquiring so that they can join him(!). He hopes they become "good settlers". In the other letter, he says he had thought the "two men" wouldn't come back but they did. They wonder if an advertisement in an Alberta paper would help (with a reward of $5) - to find "John Mitchell". The "applicant" is willing to deposit $10 for expenses.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Rennell Rodd | priv: sec:') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
James Rennell Rodd (1858-1941), 1st Baron Rennell, English diplomat and classical scholar
Publication details: 
13 September 1888; on official letterhead from the British Embassy, Berlin.
£35.00

12mo, 2 pp, 10 lines. Good, on lightly aged paper, with scrap of brown paper mount adhering in top right-hand corner on the reverse (not affecting text). Concerns a volume which 'has been duly forwarded to Count Seckendorff, Comptroller of the Household of Her Majesty the Emperess Frederick'. The Ambassador Sir Edward Malet has asked Rodd to express to the correspondent 'his personal thanks for the second copy you were good enough to forward to him'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Rennell Rodd') to Harold Crawford (b.1888), son of Harold Marion-Crawford (d.1909).

Author: 
James Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell (1858-1941), British diplomat and classical scholar
Publication details: 
20 February [1902], on embossed letterhead of the British Embassy, Rome.
£38.00

12mo: 2 pp. Eleven lines of text. Very good. Having just received it from London, Rodd is sending Crawford the book he could not get in Rome which he wanted to send him as a birthday present. 'It is written by a great friend of mine who knows better than any one the history of the first voyages to America and the discovery of the Great Southern Sea. I think you will like it.' In an envelope, on aged paper, with postmarks and Italian postage stamp. Addressed to 'Harold Crawford, Villa Crawford, St Agnello di Sorrento'.

Autograph Letter Signed to 'Dr Scott'.

Author: 
Walter Baring
Publication details: 
18 January 1874; Constantinople.
£50.00

Diplomat (1844-1915) and scion of the banking house. 4 pages, 8vo. Paper discoloured and grubby, but in good condition generally. He says he 'was on the other side of the Bosphorous' the day before, and so 'was unable to answer your letter by Austrian mail as I should otherwise have done'. He is sorry that Scott 'should have had any trouble about the cheque': he omitted to go through his account. He presents another cheque (not enclosed) for £4 18s 6d as he is going to ask Scott to make another payment.

Autograph Letter Signed, in Spanish, to George Erving

Author: 
Francisco Giron, Duke of Osuna
Publication details: 
Madrid, 9 August 1814.
£125.00

The recipient, George William Erving (1769-1850), was U.S. Minister to Spain, 1814-19. 2 pages. 16 lines of Spanish text. In good condition despite slight discoloration. Neatly attached down one edge to blank sheet of paper. Docketed (by Erving?) 'From the Duke of Osuna (his family name Francisco Giron)'. One of the subjects is "La Guerra a los Ingleses".

Syndicate content