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Lot 39

WORLD WAR I - RUHLEBEN PRISON CAMP
A good collection of 76 postcards (75 real photographs, one original watercolour of a building facade), all depicting Ruhleben camp buildings, inmates, theatrical groups, and life, formed by prisoner of war camp inmate George Muffin, [c.1914-1918] (collection)

27 November 2018, 13:00 GMT
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £812.50 inc. premium

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WORLD WAR I - RUHLEBEN PRISON CAMP

A good collection of 76 postcards (75 real photographs, one original watercolour of a building facade), all depicting Ruhleben camp buildings, inmates, theatrical groups, and life, formed by prisoner of war camp inmate George Muffin, most captioned in the negative, the majority with neat ink note on verso of Muffin's name and address ("Tea House, Ruhleben, Germany") and that of family/friends at 3 or 4 London addresses, a few stamped "Freigegeben. Ruhleben" in red ink, approximately 95 x 140mm., [c.1914-1918] (collection)

Footnotes

A large collection of photographic postcards depicting life at the British prisoner of war camp Ruhleben, near Berlin. Views of buildings and daily activities include "Marble Arch", "Bond Street", interior of a barber shop, "Line-up at Cook-House" and "... at Hot Water House", panoramic views of the camp under snow, "Roll Call", "Parcels from Home", the Great Handicrafts Exhibition of 1918 (3 interior views, 3 showing samples of exhibited items, 2 marked in ink with an "X", presumably made by Muffin), groups of men (by a vine, holding banjos) and football teams (2, including "Tea House XI"). Approximately 35 postcards relate to camp theatricals, approximately 25 depicting men in female roles, or as the "Ruhleben Follies" (4), some as "Indian squaws" or blacked-up for Cowboy performances (6). Performances identified are Shakespeare's "Merry Wives of Windsor" and Sheridan's "School for Scandal", one image depicting the outside of the theatre with a banner announcing all the productions, including works by Oscar Wilde, Ibsen and George Bernard Shaw.

Provenance: "George Muffin, Tea House [Barracks], Ruhleben, Germany". Muffin (depicted in a couple of images) was an inmate at the camp for the entire duration of the war.

Additional information

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