ROMANY

[ Victorian Gypsies. ] Four Victorian photographs, including three of John Sampson of the Gypsy Lore Society and children (Gypsies?) in bohemian dress.

Author: 
John Sampson [ 'The Rai' ] (1862-1931), Irish linguist, Blake scholar, and authority on Gypsies [ Romani culture; Romany ]
Sampson
Publication details: 
Undated Victorian photographs.
£250.00
Sampson

The Gypsy Lore Society was founded in 1888, and one of its prime movers was John Sampson, friend of Augustus John (for many years President of the Gypsy Lore Society) and the subject of the book 'The Scholar Gypsy' (1997), written by his grandson Anthony Sampson. According to a review in The Times, 17 May 1997, Sampson was 'a Victorian autodidact and philologist, who spent most of his life running the Liverpool University Library.

[ Bernard Gilliat-Smith (1883-1973), Romany scholar. ] Autograph Letter Signed (in full and as 'B G S') from Constantinople, including references to the hanging of the 'head eunuch', 'the new Selamlik' and 'prisoner solders' at the Seraskerat.

Author: 
Bernard Gilliat-Smith (1883-1973), Romany scholar and linguist [ Gypsy Lore Society ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Club de Constantinople, Pera [ Turkey ]. 30 April 1909.
£250.00

4pp., 12mo. Aged and worn with closed tears along fold lines. At the time BGS was in the consular service in Istanbul. The recipient (perhaps R. A. Scott Mafie) is not named, and the salutation is in Romany. The letter begins: 'I am about to feast the eve of tomorrow which is the eve of the next day by imbibing a large quantity of Whisky and Soda, first to see how much will be required to produce the desired effect. I am also streaming with a cold in the head due to a hammam last night. The Kurdish youth has left for his country: - many Kurds have been arrested & shot since you left.

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