• Christies auction house James Christie logo

    Sale 7233

    Valuable Manuscripts and Printed Books

    London

    |

    7 June 2006

    Browse Sale
Previous Lot
Search
Next Lot
    • LAWRENCE, Thomas Edward (1888-
    Lot 103

    LAWRENCE, Thomas Edward (1888-1935). Autograph letter signed ('T.E. Shaw') to [John] Buchan, n.p. [written on the verso of a page with the letterhead of 14 Barton Street, the house of Herbert Baker], 1 December 1926, one page, 8vo.

    Price realised

    GBP 2,280

    Estimate

    GBP 2,000 - GBP 3,000

    Follow lot

    LAWRENCE, Thomas Edward (1888-1935). Autograph letter signed ('T.E. Shaw') to [John] Buchan, n.p. [written on the verso of a page with the letterhead of 14 Barton Street, the house of Herbert Baker], 1 December 1926, one page, 8vo.

    Lawrence acknowledges Buchan's help in negotiating with the Prime Minister (Stanley Baldwin) his return to the RAF. 'I go to Uxbridge tomorrow preparatory to embarkation to India. Your copy of my book [the Subscribers' Edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom ] is not yet ready: it is being rather specially bound. This copy is one of those which I am giving the fellows who did the Arab Revolt with me ... I wanted you to ask Mr Baldwin if he would care to accept it. You & he did me the best turn I've ever had done to me'.

    When making the arrangements for the lavishly produced Subscribers' Edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom Lawrence had originally planned to give away a number of copies to his fellow-workers for the Arab cause although in the end there were not enough to go round. Some of those given away were imperfect, including the one offered here to Baldwin, in which, he writes, plates are missing but 'if he likes books, as I'm told, he may prefer a broken copy to none at all'.

    The occasion for Lawrence's gratitude to Buchan and Baldwin was of particular importance to him. He had re-enlisted in the Tank Corps in 1923, as T.E. Shaw (following the discovery by the press that he had joined the RAF the previous year as John Hume Ross). In April 1925 he contrived to meet Buchan (to whom he had been introduced by Lionel Curtis) in the street, taking the opportunity to speak of his wish to return to the RAF (Letters, ed. M. Brown (1988), 280 n.3), a wish that was turned down by the Minister for Air, Sir Samuel Hoare. With the help of Buchan and Bernard Shaw, who used their influence with Baldwin, he was allowed to transfer back to his preferred service later in the year. He wrote to Charlotte Shaw on 4 July 1925 that 'About the RAF John Buchan seems to have worked the oracle'. The friendship between Buchan and Lawrence, which at this stage had hardly developed, was to become increasingly warm, encouraged by their common interest in literature, and Lawrence was a frequent visitor to Elsfield, the Buchans' home outside Oxford.

    Contact us

    • Contact Client Service

      info@christies.com

      New York +1 212 636 2000

      London +44 (0)20 7839 9060

      infoasia@christies.com

      Asia +852 2760 1766

    Other information

    Special Notice

    Buyers from within the EU: VAT payable at 17.5% on just the buyer's premium (NOT the hammer price) Buyers from outside the EU: VAT payable at 17.5% on hammer price and buyer's premium. If a buyer, having registered under a non-EU address, decides that an item is not to be exported from the EU, then he/she should advise Christie's to this effect immediately.


    Recommended features

      • Collecting guide: Bibles
      • Collecting guide: Bibles

        Mark Wiltshire, Associate Specialist in Science & Books, walks us through the history of Christianity’s most influential printed text

      • Live like a Rockefeller — Pabl
      • Live like a Rockefeller — Pablo Picasso’s Pomme

        Jonathan Rendell, Christie’s ’story teller’ for The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller, looks at a painting that gives him ‘goose-bumps’

      • Virtual tour: Post-War and Con
      • Virtual tour: Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie’s Amsterdam

        Discover CoBrA, Basquiat, Polke and more at De Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam

Share
Email
Copy link
Share
Email
Copy link