АВТОГРАФЫ, ПИСЬМА & МАНУСКРИПТЫ
10.12.16 (локальном времени Вашего часового пояса)
России
 LONDON – HILTON CANARY WHARF HOTEL

По Москве: 17:00, Лондонское время: 14:00

Аукцион закончен

ЛОТ 115:

REILLY SIDNEY: (c.1873-c.1925) Russian-born (?) Secret Agent, the 'Ace of Spies'.

Продан за: £2,800
Эстимейт:
3,000 £ - 5,000 £
теги:

An extremely rare vintage dark fountain pen ink signature ('Sidney Reilly') on a page removed from an autograph album, dated 16th July 1920 in his hand. Also signed ('Alexander of Battenberg') in bold black fountain pen ink by Alexander Mountbatten (1886-1960) 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke. British Army officer and a grandson of Queen Victoria. Mountbatten has added the date 14th August 1913 in his hand. Together with George Alexander Hill (1892-1968) British Intelligence Officer, a friend and colleague of Reilly. Hill acted as a witness at Reilly's wedding to his second wife in 1923. During World War II Hill, who had attained the rank of a Major, worked with the Special Operations Executive (SOE), one of his students being Kim Philby. T.L.S., Peter George, with holograph salutation, one page, 4to, Bad Neuenahr, 6th December 1954, to Dennis Wheatley. Hill thanks Wheatley for their letter and continues to state that they look forward to visiting him on 28th December, commenting 'I will let you know after we get to England about when we should arrive (weather, wind and fog permitting).' In concluding Hill asks for a line by return to inform him whether or not they should bring over evening clothes. Annotated with the pencil received date of 11th December 1954 at the head. VG, 2Dennis Wheatley (1897-1977) English Author of thriller and occult novels. The background themes of Wheatley's novels varied and included World War II and Espionage. His Gregory Sallust series was one of the main inspirations for Ian Fleming's James Bond stories.Autographs of Sidney Reilly are of the utmost rarity - we can find no records of another example ever having previously been offered for sale at auction.Sidney George Riley (born with the surname Rosenblum and changed to Reilly in the late 1890s) was a secret agent with the British Secret Service Bureau, the precursor to the modern British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). A master of deception, much of Reilly's life is shrouded in mystery and legend, however his fame was created in the 1920s (at the time of the present signature) in part by his friend, British diplomat and journalist Robert Bruce Lockhart, who publicised their thwarted operation to overthrow the Bolshevik regime in 1918. Later Ian Fleming was to use Reilly as a model for James Bond and today many historians consider Reilly to have been the first 20th century super-spy.