Every day Sophie Dupre presents two items from her large stock of signed photographs, autograph letters, autographs for sale, royal memoralbilia and antiquarian manuscripts.
The photographs are presented with the catalogue descriptions.
On this day... see what happened on your special day
April 20
On This Day
On this day in 1902 Donald Wolfit was born. He was an English actor-manager, best known for his touring wartime productions of Shakespeare. He was especially renowned for his portrayal of King Lear.
In 1920 Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia died. She was the elder daughter and fourth child of Emperor Alexander III of Russia and Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia (née Princess Dagmar of Denmark) and sister of Emperor Nicholas II. She married her second cousin Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia, with whom she had seven children. During her brother's reign she recorded in her diary and letters increasing concern about his rule. After the fall of the monarchy in February 1917 she fled Russia, eventually settling in the United Kingdom.
WOLFIT (Sir Donald, 1902-1968, Actor-Manager)
Fine Autograph Letter Signed to Mr Gregory, saying he was “overwhelmed by your generosity ... Your letter alone is a joy but the edition is a beauty and one that I had not known before. It will stand on my shelf next to an edition of Volpone with the Beardsley illustrations given to me by Lord Keynes. The idea of the Bath Assembly sounds entrancing”, just before Keynes’s “tragic death we talked of doing the Davenant Macbeth in ’Bonnie Prince Charlie’ costume”, 3 sides 8vo., Garrick Club, 11th April 1958
56176
XENIA ALEXANDROVNA (Grand Duchess, 1875-1960, Sister of Nicholas II and Wife of his Cousin Grand Duke Alexander)
Autograph letter signed on both sides of a plain postcard to ‘Dear Miss Kraty’ thanking her for her letter “& sending me Nadia’s”, (Princess Nadejda Dmitrievna, 1933-2002, only daughter of the writer’s fourth son Dmitri Alexandrovich, 1901-1980), “& also for the book - it wasn’t the one I meant so I suppose it is somewhere” among Nadia’s mother’s things, (Russian-born Marina, 1912-1960, née Countess Golenistcheva-Kutuzova), “The one you sent belongs to Xenia”, (Princess Xenia Andreevna, 1919-2000) 2 sides postcard, Balmoral, 3rd April 1944
38066
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