PRESENTATION PHOTO OF KING BORIS OF BULGARIA IN SILVER FRAME BORIS III (1894-1943, King of Bulgaria from 1918)

Exceptional Presentation Photo signed inscribed “Dover-Ostend” and dated, showing him full length, in informal clothes with a flat cap and coat, standing on deck next to the Captain of S. S. Canterbury, 7” x 4” in Silver Frame, 8½” x 6” in leather fitted box 10” x 7½”, 15th November

Boris became king on the abdication of his father ‘Foxy’ Ferdinand I (1861-1948). At first the country was in the hands of the peasant party, and by 1934 Boris had suspended the constitution and ruled as an autocrat. Hitler forced him to sign the Vienna accord of 1941 to use Bulgaria as a base to attack Yugoslavia and Greece, and he is believed to have been poisoned in 1943 by the Nazis for refusing to declare war on Russia after an interview with Hitler. His favourite hobby was driving steam locomotives.
SS Canterbury was a ferry completed in 1929 to link the Golden Arrow and La Flèche d'Or trains to form the prestige London–Dover–Calais–Paris service.
Provenance: together with a manuscript note saying that “this photo is of King Boris of Bulgaria taken with my husband Charles Hancock by the Queen of Bulgaria on board the S.S. Canterbury & was sent to him byt hte King in the silver frame & leather box & autograhped (1938), Nora C. Hancock”.

Item Date:  1938

Stock No:  43048      £1750

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