Antique Signed Letters Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar to Princess Mdvini

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Bibelotslondon Ltd is a UK registered company based in London Bridge dealing in ephemera and curiosities from Britain and around the world. Our diverse inventory is carefully chosen and constantly evolving. We work very hard to offer the highest quality works at competitive prices. Our inventory is listed online, and we strive to keep our website completely up to date, so our customers can easily check availability. We believe in offering clients items that are unique and rare for aficionados of the antique and collector's world. Bibelot is a late nineteenth century word derived from the French word bel 'beautiful', meaning a small item of beauty, curiosity or interest. The word ephemera is derived from the sixteenth century Greek word ephmera meaning a printed or hand written paper not meant to be retained for a long period of time.

Fine antique pair of typed and signed letters from the last Maharajah of Mysore Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar (1919-1974), sent to Princess Nina Mdvini (1901-1987), at Claridges Hotel in London dated 5th December 1966 and 22nd January 1967. Typed and signed on beautiful stationery embossed in gold with the royal coat of arms and are both accompanied by their original envelopes with wax seals. The letters discuss the arrival of Mr and Mrs Hiriyanniah to London and acknowledges Mrs Barbara Cartland for offering to assist. There is one additional letter from Baden addressed to Barbara Cartland from the Maharajah hoping to meet Cartland and her sons when in London. Accompanying these is a typed and signed biography of Hiriyanniah.

The Mdivani is a Georgian family. In the West, the best known bearers of this name were the children of General Zakhari Mdivani (1867-1933) and his wife, Elizabeth Viktorovna Sabalewska (1884-1922). The five siblings fled to Paris after the Soviet invasion of Georgia in 1921, and became known as the "Marrying Mdivanis", as they all married into wealth and fame. Nina who was married to Charles Henry Huberich, a Stanford professor and lawyer, from 15 July 1925 until their divorce on 19 May 1936. On 18 August 1936 she married Denis Conan Doyle, a son of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. After Denis's death on 9 March 1955, she married Anthony Harwood, a secretary to Denis Conan Doyle

Wadiyar ascended the throne upon the sudden demise of his uncle. His reign as King began in 1940 during the onset of World War II and concluded with his merging the Kingdom into the Dominion of India in 1947 but continued as maharaja until India's constitution into a republic in 1950. His Kannada teacher and the vice-chancellor of Mysore university, remarked upon his ceding the kingdom: "Whereas kings have become so upon assuming thrones, he became a great king by renouncing one". C. Hayavadana Rao, a noted historian, referred to the maharaja in the preface of his unfinished book as a "supporter of every good cause aiming at the moral and material progress of the people".

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Envelope Size: 14 x 21.5 cm approx