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    Sale 6868

    THE SPIRO FAMILY COLLECTION, PART 1

    London

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    3 December 2003

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    Lot 118

    EDWARD VIII (1894-1972), King of England, Duke of Windsor. Five typed letters signed, the first (signed as King, 'Edward R.I.') to Captain J.H. Maxse of the Coldstream Guards, Buckingham Palace, n.d. [22 February 1936], on mourning paper, one page, 4to, envelope; the remainder (signed as Duke of Windsor, 'Edward') to Richard E. Berlin, Paris, 3 October 1960 -12 December 1963, 6½ pages, 4to; and a document signed ('Edward, Duke of Windsor'), a broadside printing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations, 10 December 1948, including the 1968 U.N. commemorative stamp of the occasion, cancelled on first day of issue, signed at foot, one page, large folio (the letters including annotations and date-stamps by the recipient).

    Price realised

    GBP 2,868

    Estimate

    GBP 1,200 - GBP 1,800

    Follow lot

    EDWARD VIII (1894-1972), King of England, Duke of Windsor. Five typed letters signed, the first (signed as King, 'Edward R.I.') to Captain J.H. Maxse of the Coldstream Guards, Buckingham Palace, n.d. [22 February 1936], on mourning paper, one page, 4to, envelope; the remainder (signed as Duke of Windsor, 'Edward') to Richard E. Berlin, Paris, 3 October 1960 -12 December 1963, 6½ pages, 4to; and a document signed ('Edward, Duke of Windsor'), a broadside printing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations, 10 December 1948, including the 1968 U.N. commemorative stamp of the occasion, cancelled on first day of issue, signed at foot, one page, large folio (the letters including annotations and date-stamps by the recipient).

    Written in the second month of Edward VIII's brief reign, the letter to Maxse thanks him for taking part 'in the vigil over my Father in Westminster Hall' (George V's lying-in-state in January 1936).
    The chatty and informal letters to Berlin, a friend and golfing partner (in New York), report on the Duke of Windsor's life in France, giving his usually pessimistic view of the political scene including ('This country is as you know in a very dangerous political mess. De Gaulle is in a terrible pickle); his interest in the televised Kennedy - Nixon debate, the Kennedy presidency ('I could not resist saying to [Rose Kennedy] that I was surprised at one of young Jack's Labor Day speeches advocating a return to 'The Spirit of F.D.R." in Deomocratic policies. God help America!'); and the assassination of President Kennedy, 'both tragic and frightful and a great shock to the whole world, politics excluded'. (7)

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