DAMASCUS

Autograph Letter Signed from Sir Gilbert Mackereth ('Gilbert Mackereth'), British Consul at Damascus, to Ernest Gye of the Foreign Office, on his posting to Tangier, and including a discussion of British artists there.

Author:

Sir Gilbert Mackereth (1892-1962), British army officer and diplomat [Ernest Frederick Gye (1879-1955), diplomat; Damascus, Syria; Henry Bishop (1868-1939), RA, British artist]

Publication details:

On letterheads of the British Consulate, Damascus; 21 January 1933.

£75.00

8 pp, 12mo. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed to 'Dear Ernest'. He begins by congratulating Gye on his promotion and 'on going to Tangier - a delightful spot'. It is however 'very sad' that Gye's 'guiding hand over our destinies will no longer be there in the Office'. He thanks Gye for his 'kindness' and 'sympathy': 'My path has lain along uneventful ways and it has been an untold solace to feel you did not despise those who had mearly [sic] to 'stand & wait''.

Keywords:

Eleven Autograph Letters Signed from the diplomat Sir William Alexander Smart to Ernest Frederick Gye of the Foreign Office, from New York, Saloncia, Beirut, Damascus, and five from Paris, with references to James Joyce, Sylvia Beach and Proust.

Author:

Sir William Alexander Smart (1883-1962), British diplomat in the Levant and Egypt [Ernest Frederick Gye (1879-1955), diplomat; Sylvia Beach; James Joyce; Marcel Proust]

Publication details:

Dating from between 1917 and 1926. One from New York (1917); one from Salonica (1919); five from Paris (one undated, the other four 1922); one from Beirut (1923); three from Damascus (1924, 1925 and 1926).

£650.00

Totalling 68 pp, comprising 50 pp, 12mo; 18 pp, 4to. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Two signed 'W. A. Smart' and the others 'WAS.' All addressed to 'My dear Ernest'. Written in a spirited, chatty, and (for a diplomat) surprisingly indiscreet style, of which the beginning of the second letter (Salonica; 19 August 1919), concerning the appointment of Victor Vincent Cusden (1893-1980), gives a good example: 'Were you not content with condemning me to physical and financial ruin in this death-trap? Why, to add to my afflictions, did you send me this pathetic shop-boy?

Keywords:

DAMASCUS

Autograph Letter Signed from Sir Gilbert Mackereth ('Gilbert Mackereth'), British Consul at Damascus, to Ernest Gye of the Foreign Office, on his posting to Tangier, and including a discussion of British artists there.

Eleven Autograph Letters Signed from the diplomat Sir William Alexander Smart to Ernest Frederick Gye of the Foreign Office, from New York, Saloncia, Beirut, Damascus, and five from Paris, with references to James Joyce, Sylvia Beach and Proust.

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