Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Lot 156

SACKVILLE-WEST (VITA)

22 November 2011, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £1,750 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

SACKVILLE-WEST (VITA)

Autograph manuscript of an untitled short story, beginning: "Denton & I were dining in Elsmere's rooms..."; with a number of corrections and revisions; subscribed: "Cospoli 6th, & 7th, Jan. 1914", 8 leaves of ruled stock written on one side only, rust-staining from paper clip, folio, Constantinople, 6-7 January 1914

Footnotes

TERROR PURCHASED IN THE CALEDONIAN MARKET: "'The voice?' I said, and a feeling of chill horror crept over me./ 'The voice', said Denton wildly. 'I, in the twentieth century, have spoken with the Oracle of Delphi, and I neglected its warning. That serpent's head, one of the three which supported the golden bowl; the serpent's head, lost Heaven knows when, from Constantinople, and coming to light in Elsmere's rooms! it's fantastic, it's unbelievable, and I have spoken with it". This seemingly unpublished cautionary tale for buyers of un-provenanced antiquities tells the story of a bronze serpent's head that surfaces on a stall in the Caledonian Market, the forerunner of today's Bermondsey Antiques Market. It turns out to be one of the fittings of the Delphic Oracle and is bought by Elsmere, an antiquarian with a taste for the fantastic. Unaware of what it is, he takes it home and suffers horribly as a result. (Such irresponsibility would have been deplored by Michael Silverman, who was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 2008).

This story was written when Vita Sackville-West was living in Constantinople, where Harold Nicholson, whom she had married on 1 October 1913, was serving as Third Secretary at the British Embassy. We can find no record of the story in Cross and Ravenscroft-Hulme's bibliography. See illustration on previous leaf.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

ADVERTISING POSTERfor 'The Suffragette' newspaper, [c.1913-1914]

ARCHITECTURE - STUART (JAMES) AND NICHOLAS REVETT The Antiquities of Athens, 4 vol. bound in 2, 1825-1830

ILLUMINATED ADDRESS – CLARA CODD Illuminated printed address signed by Emmeline Pankhurst, [1909]

ARMENIAN - HISTORY, THEOLOGY AND PRINTING. Group of books/a map in Armenian, c.1825-1901 (12)

MUSIC & RECORDINGS – ETHEL SMYTH Collection of printed music, song sheets and records, [c.1911-1912]

BANK NOTES - MANUFACTURING BRADBURY (HENRY) On the Security and Manufacture of Bank Notes, FIRST EDITION, Bradbury and Evans, 1856