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Lord Byron

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:40,000.00 - 45,000.00 USD
Lord Byron

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Auction Date:2013 Nov 13 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, 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
Four untranslated LSs in Italian addressed to Greek patriot Giorgio Vitali, three signed “Noel Byron, Pair d'Angleterre” and one initialed “N. B.,” each one page, approximately 8 x 10, dated between June 30 and July 12, 1823. All four were written while Byron was making his final preparations for his voyage to Greece and are penned in the hand of Count Pietro Gamba, Byron’s secretary and the brother of his mistress, Contessa Teresa Guiccioli. In his first letter, dated June 30, Byron declines an offer of passage in Vitali's ship and explains that he has already hired an English brig for the voyage. In the second, dated July 7, Byron reschedules his departure to July 12 and recognizes the “momento del forte conflitto.” The third, dated July 9, informs Vitali that in order to not lose a moment of time, Byron has resolved to stop just briefly at Leghorn to take him and an English gentleman [James Hamilton Browne] on board, and asks Vitali to tell his compatriots to have any dispatches or instructions related to his mission prepared and ready for his arrival. In the final letter, dated July 12, Byron again delays his departure, now to July 14, and reiterates that while passing through Leghorn they should not drop anchor, in order to avoid the pointless expense and waste of time. In overall fine condition, with a clipped triangular area of paper loss to the edge of one letter due to seal removal. Accompanied by an unsigned engraved portrait.

Despite his strong circle of literary friends and his passionate relationship with Teresa Guiccioli, Byron was growing bored with his leisurely life in Genoa by the summer of 1823. With encouragement from a group of Greek revolutionaries to join them in their war for independence from the Ottoman Empire, Byron bid farewell to Teresa and boarded the ‘Hercules’ on July 13, the day after writing the last of the present letters. Arriving in Cephalonia on August 2, he funded the refitting of the Greek fleet and sailed for Missolonghi; but shortly after his arrival there, he fell ill and died on April 19. While the vast majority of Byron’s letters—over 3,000—were published in Marchand’s comprehensive, 12-volume edition of all of Byron’s known letters and journals, these four were not, making them exceptionally rare and desirable.
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