Rare WWII "Great Escape" Prison Diary Owned by an Imprisoned RAF Officer Inside Infamous Stalag Luft III POW Camp Hits Auction Block in NYC For the Very First Time

NEW YORK, May 29, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- WWII "Great Escape" Prison Diary Goes To Auction on June 12th

RARE WWII "GREAT ESCAPE" PRISON DIARY OWNED BY AN IMPRISONED RAF OFFICER INSIDE INFAMOUS STALAG LUFT III POW CAMP WILL HIT THE AUCTION BLOCK FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME ON WEDNESDAY JUNE 12, 2019 IN NEW YORK.

Lion Heart Autographs Offers Remarkable Log Book Documenting Camp Conditions and the Murderous Aftermath of the "Great Escape"

Wednesday, June 12, 2019 Beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET

Lion Heart Autographs, Inc., for more than forty years an internationally recognized dealer of autographs and manuscripts specializing in art, history, literature, music, and science, has announced an extraordinary live auction to take place on Wednesday, June 12, 2019 beginning at 1:00 p.m. which will feature over 175 lots of some of the world's most rare and valuable manuscripts, autographs and memorabilia to date. The auction: WWII "Great Escape" POW Diary & 175 GREAT Autographs in Art, History, Literature, Music & Science will be streamed live online via http://www.invaluable.com.

In a remarkable opportunity for collectors and museums and to commemorate the 75th anniversary of WWII's most famous escape attempt, Lion Heart Autographs will offer a very rare diary from the STALAG LUFT III POW "GREAT ESCAPE" prison camp. This richly illustrated YMCA "Wartime Log for British Prisoners" (1944) belonged to the Belgian-born, British Royal Air Force officer, JOSEPH M.J. ("JOE") GUEUFFEN (1914-2009), a prisoner of war at the Luftwaffe's Stalag Luft III. The well-preserved volume documents prison life and various aspects of World War II's famous "Great Escape," detailing its aftermath in which 50 British escapees were executed by the Nazis as well as the forced march of 2,000 POWs to another camp as the war drew to a close. This diary chronicles the period from September 1944 to February 1945, and was owned by Gueuffen, an RAF pilot living in Block 109, a barrack that played an integral part in the "Great Escape," which occurred 75 years ago, on March 24, 1944. Its 113 pages contain texts, maps, diagrams, and 43 colorful cartoons and drawings by Gueuffen and other, mostly British, captives.

The 1963 film The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Charles Bronson, depicted a highly fictionalized account of the escape, and was loosely based on the book of the same name authored by Stalag Luft III prisoner and escape participant Paul Brickhill, and published with illustrations by Ley Kenyon (1913-1990), a prisoner who contributed a detailed original drawing of a bomber pilot and crewman to our diary. During the escape's planning stages, Kenyon made six drawings of the tunnel code-named "Harry" that now reside at London's Royal Air Force Museum. (Estimate $10,000/$12,000).

Other important historical documents and highlights offered in Lion Heart Autographs' auction of 175 collectible pieces, WWII "Great Escape" POW Diary & 175 GREAT Autographs in Art, History, Literature, Music & Science include:

MATA HARI: A rare, handwritten letter by the most famous spy in history who was executed by the French army following her conviction as a German spy during World War I. In her cryptic letter Mata Hari who plied her spycraft while an exotic dancer writes an unknown gentleman about a bank draft to be used "as payment for the negotiation in Germany. I cannot rush this negotiation. They require information and that takes time." (Estimate: $2500/$3000)

A unique 18-page, gold printed menu written in French and Farsi for the lavish banquet of MOHAMMAD REZA PAHLAVI, SHAH OF IRAN AND SHAHBANU FARAH PAHLAVI, held October 14, 1971: This event commemorates the 2,500 year anniversary of the Iranian Empire's founding, remembered to this day as the most expensive dinner party in history. The meal was prepared by 160 chefs, bakers and staff flown in from Maxim's of Paris and lasted 5½ hours. Among the 600 guests were royalty from England, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Greece, Luxembourg, Monaco, Lichtenstein, Naples, Jordan, Nepal, Malaysia, Thailand, Afghanistan, Japan, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrein; heads of state from Germany, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, Portugal, the USSR, Yugoslavia, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the Philippines, Ethiopia, Morocco, Senegal, Egypt, South Africa, Algeria, Tunisia, Brazil, Australia, and Canada; and a Cardinal representing the Vatican. The United States was represented by Vice President Spiro Agnew. The Guinness Book of World Records recorded the dinner as the longest and most lavish official banquet in modern history. (Estimate: $1500/$2000)

PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT: A typed statement written on White House stationery about American humorist and author, Mark Twain, with 13 words in the president's hand. "I shall have no fear for the future of America so long as we are able to laugh at ourselves as we learned to do with Mark Twain; he was the embodiment of that sense of humor without which the essential qualities of American nature could not have…survived… He enabled us to focus our minds upon our extravagances, our shortcomings, and our idiosyncrasies… We were taught by him to know ourselves; to despise…shams…to cherish the genuine… and to retain a sense of proportion in work and at play." (Estimate $4000/$6000)

EUBIE BLAKE: African-American ragtime pianist and composer of "I'm Just Wild about Harry," one of America's most famous tunes and extensively used in President Truman's 1948 re-election campaign. A complete, seven page original piano vocal score of "I'm Just Wild about Harry," written in Blake's hand with notable differences from the original 1921 sheet music version. (Estimate: $8000/$12000)

STEINWAY PIANOS: A magnificent suite of six original, oversized and framed photographs inscribed to America's premier piano manufacturer, Steinway and Sons, by some of the company's greatest artists, including: Alexander Brailowsky (Estimate $1000/$1500), Vladimir Horowitz (Estimate $2500/$3000), William Kapell (Estimate $2000/$2500), Arthur Rubinstein (Estimate $2500/$3000), Rudolf Serkin (Estimate $1250/$1500), and Solomon (Estimate $1250/1500)

NEIL ARMSTRONG: To commemorate the 50th anniversary of man's first landing on the moon, an original handwritten letter by astronaut Neil Armstrong written the year of the flight and commenting on it less than five months after his return to earth: "I certainly want to thank you for your kind wishes at the time of the flight. All the prayers and good wishes seemed to help." ($5000/$6000)

WILLIAM FAULKNER: A precious and extremely rare manuscript by the American author and Nobel Prize winner whose classic novels Light in August, The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying present a stark portrait of life in America's deep south. Twenty-one lines in Faulkner's tiny hand of an early draft of a key passage from his Light in August. This leaf was given to New Yorker writer and Algonquin Roundtable wit Dorothy Parker, who in turn passed it on to American poet Archibald MacLeish, who has annotated the manuscript in pencil: "Faulkner ms given me by Dorothy Parker in 1930 (?) [sic] A MacLeish." Faulkner manuscripts only very rarely turn up at auction because almost everything by him is held in institutions. (Estimate $25,000/$30,000)

POLAR EXPLORERS: A selection of autographs representing many of the major heroes who led expeditions of discovery to the North and South Poles, with some of them never returning home. Names include: Robert F. Scott, Titus Oates, "Birdie" Bowers, Edward A. Wilson, (all of whom perished on their march back to base camp from the South Pole), Sir Ernest Shackleton, James Clark Ross, Sir John Ross, Richard E. Byrd, Robert E. Peary, Sir William E. Parry, Sir John and Lady Franklin. (Estimates vary)

PRESIDENT LYNDON B. JOHNSON: The 36th president of the United States offers a humanistic message of support to the American Jewish Committee in 1967: "Of all the evils that men have sought to eradicate through the ages, bigotry and prejudice are surely the most persistent. Since your founding, more than six decades ago, you have consistently provided all men with pioneering concepts and new tools with which to deepen human understanding and to overcome the destructive forces that pit religion against religion, race against race, country against country." (Estimate $1500/$2000)

WINSTON CHURCHILL: A Cartier-printed menu for a dinner honoring Churchill which took place in the city of New York hosted at the Waldorf Astoria. The menu's cover is crowned by the red, blue and gold embossed coat of arms of the United Kingdom, and inside is a photogravure of Yousuf Karsh's iconic portrait signed by Churchill, which serves as the menu's frontispiece, all of which is bound by a blue-and-white knotted silk cord. The menu prints excerpts from two of Churchill's most famous addresses: his first speech as prime minister ("I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat…") and his speech from June 4, 1940, following the evacuation of Dunkirk, ("We shall never surrender…"). This striking image is without question the most famous photograph ever taken of a statesman. (Estimate: $7000/$9000)

BILLIE HOLIDAY: A rare and dramatic black-and-white, full-length photograph of Billie Holiday, America's premier female jazz vocalist known as "Lady Day," by photographer Siegfried H. Mohr, showing her wearing an elegant, sequined gown singing, with her right hand holding a microphone. It is inscribed on the back "For Yolanda [sic.] Stay as lovely as you are, Billie Lady Holiday" to Sri Lankan singer and actress Yolande Bavan. Because she died young, autographs of Billie Holiday, also known as "Lady Day," are rare and this is an extremely uncommon form of her signature. (Estimate: $2000/$2500)

SPORTS: Several sports greats will also be represented in the sale, including signatures of Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, and autographed printed photographs of Walter Johnson and tennis star "Big Bill" Tilden. (Various estimates)

VICE PRESIDENTS: A rare copy of the vice presidential oath of office typed on an original sheet of vice presidential stationery, engraved with the vice presidential seal and signed by 10 vice presidents – three of whom also became president –including Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, Spiro T. Agnew, Gerald Ford, Nelson Rockefeller, Walter Mondale, George H. W. Bush, Dan Quayle, Al Gore, Dick Cheney, and the autopen signature of Joe Biden. (Estimate $5000/$6000)

T.E. LAWRENCE ("LAWRENCE OF ARABIA"): Autograph manuscript about his book The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, one of the greatest books of the 20th century, and George Bernard Shaw's role in writing it, signed with Lawrence's pseudonym "TE Shaw." "Revolt in the Desert is not a book, on its own, but slices of a longer book, roughly bridged together with the minimum of new words. It was made at Cadet College, Cranwell, in April, 1926, after work, in two evenings, by me; my right arm had been broken two days before, so I got A/C Miller and A/A Knowles to act secretaries for me, in the Hut. Because it isn't a book, no copy of it will ever be signed by me. Every copy of the longer text (Seven Pillars of Wisdom) was signed. The author's forward to 'Revolt' (initialled T.E.S) was written by Mr. Bernard Shaw: he had no other part in the book. TE Shaw." (Estimate: $3500/$4500)

"I always feel privileged to offer rare, historical documents and autographs, but our upcoming auction in June represents the broadest and most extraordinary array of items spanning hundreds of years of historical events and periods that I am simply in awe," said David Lowenherz, founder and owner of Lion Heart Autographs. "We hope collectors and fans from around the globe share in our excitement as they peruse artifacts in art, history, literature, music, science and sports. Whether the human endeavor is represented by racing to Arctic regions, landing on the moon or fleeing from captivity, this auction, clearly has something for everyone."

Additional lots include can be viewed at https://www.invaluable.com/catalog/fx5ksap7sg
For bidding registration click here: https://www.invaluable.com/catalog/fx5ksap7sg

The auction will take place live and online, partnering with Boston-based http://www.Invaluable.com, one of the world's leading online auction platforms.
Lion Heart Autographs, Inc. is located at 216 East 45th Street, Suite 1100, New York, NY, 10017. Telephone: 212-779-7050; Fax: 212-779-7066; Email: [email protected]; website: http://www.lionheartautographs.com
Hi-res images can be requested from [email protected]        

REGISTERING TO BID AND CATALOG INFORMATION

https://www.invaluable.com/catalog/fx5ksap7sg

ABOUT LION HEART AUTOGRAPHS

Lion Heart Autographs is an internationally recognized dealer of autographs and manuscripts specializing in art, history, literature, music and science. Founded in 1978, Lion Heart Autographs has earned an unmatched global reputation for acquiring and placing the most rare, interesting and unique autographs and manuscripts, while scrupulously authenticating and describing each piece's historical significance. Clients range from Harvard, Yale and the U.S. Library of Congress to private collectors, investors and corporations around the globe. Lion Heart Autographs is located at 216 East 45th Street in New York City and is operated by David Lowenherz, its founder and president. For more information, please visit http://www.lionheartautographs.com.

Hi-res images available upon request. Please email press contact below.

PRESS CONTACT
Caroline Galloway (440) 591-3807 or [email protected]

SOURCE Lion Heart Autographs, Inc.

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