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Charles ‘Chinese’ Gordon

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:7,500.00 - 8,500.00 USD
Charles ‘Chinese’ Gordon

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Auction Date:2016 Sep 14 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Intriguing archive of 17 ALSs to Charles Button in Seychelles, most signed “C. G. Gordon,” totaling 33 pages, dated 1881–1882; one is unsigned and lists repairs to his headquarters, and another is a partial ALS consisting of the last two pages. Gordon often writes of the coco de mer fruit and tortoises, both native to Praslin Island in the Seychelles, mentioning one or the other in a dozen letters. Praslin Island was the location of the Garden of Eden, according to Gordon, and he believed that the coco de mer was the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. One letter, in part: “I want the four little Tortoises alive not dead…The Hindoos think that Curuman one of the incarnations of Bhudda, and which name signifies Tortoise when the flood came took the form of a Tortoise and placed the Ark on his back took it to Ararat with Noah. The Tortoise eggs take six months to hatch. The flood lasted four months so that I think the flood covered them and that when it subsided, the eggs were hatched, they never could have walked down from Ararat. You see none of these isles have much animal life on them.” Another, in part: “Tell me about the Coco de Mer and anything you can think of in the way of curious things…How is the Coco de Mer in the Govt Garden at Mahé and how are the Tortoises. I hope that they are looked after. Remember you are to keep the little ones for me of the Brood.” In overall very good to fine condition, with repaired separations to several letters.