GORDON (CHARLES GEORGE) Collection of material relating to General Gordon of Khartoum (1822-1885)

GORDON (CHARLES GEORGE) Collection of material relating to General Gordon of Khartoum (1822-1885), retained by Garnet Joseph Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley (1833-1913), including two notes smuggled out of Khartoum shortly before the city's fall, correspondence from the final days of the siege, and other letters and ephemera, comprising: i) Autograph note signed ('C.G. Gordon'), stating 'Kartoum [sic] all right./ Could hold out for years.', dated '29.12.84', stamped with Gordon's seal in nasta'liq script in blue ink, dust-staining and marks, folded many times, old paper repairs on reverse, c.40 x 70mm., Khartoum, 29 December [18]84; in an envelope annotated 'Charley Gordons note of 29-12-85' in Wolseley's hand ii) Autograph note signed with initials('C.E.G.'), presumably to Wolseley, on the number of guns and infantry carried on three steamers, ('...I do hope your Intelligence Dept will be a little more energetic, nothing can be worse than it is now... When in Pekin expedition, things were never so slack... perhaps it is shortness of money. Fighting over the shillings...'), one page on a scrap of paper, dust-staining, folded several times, 12mo (137 x 63mm.), dated '30.9.84' at head iii) Autograph letter signed ('C.G. Gordon'), to Wolseley ('My dear Wolseley'), beginning '...As it seems improbable we shall meet again in this world, I would ask you to see that my family do not lose by my death...', going on to outline his debts ('...I owe King of Belgians 570 E...') and asking him to settle his accounts '...as it seems all this is at an end...', three pages on a bifolium, dust-staining, creased at folds, 8vo (178 x 115mm.), Khartoum, 14 December [18]84; with an autograph letter signed ('C.G. Gordon'), to Wolseley ('My dear Wolseley'), recommending the bearer Abdhul Hamud Bey ('...please do for him what you can. He is of a very old family...'), docketed 'This is captain of one of the steamers. C.W.W. 22/1/85' in purple pencil, one page on a bifolium, 8vo (178 x 114mm.), 14 December [18]84; autograph letter signed ('C.G. Gordon') to Wolseley ('My dear Wolseley'), giving his opinion of this '...detestable country... the good one can do can only be infinitely small, and it will be 50 years before any appreciable difference will be manifest in the state of these people. I am engaged in rooting out the slave dealers... do not feel sure of success...', fearing that his 'officer interpreter' is deceiving him and that the country is '...nothing like what it has been represented...', two pages on flimsy paper, dust-staining, tears at folds, 8vo (202 x 122mm.), Laubat, 22 July 1874; draft note ('...do not make any efforts to secure the garrisons...'), on a scrap of paper, with later docket seemingly in Wolseley's hand in purple pencil ('This is a draft telegram in Gordon's writing intended to be sent by Mr Power when he should reach the telegraph wire – It was found near scene of Col. Stewarts surrender'), marked and stained, 132 x 108mm., [n.d.] iv) Two autograph letters signed ('G.E. Gordon'), to Wolseley, from Mauritius, a place he considers '...slightly somnolent...', on proposed buildings for the Colonial fort, battling mosquitoes, suggestions for defences, including two diagrams; the second on the defence of Mauritius and praising NCOs ('...I do not believe in the Army as it is now officered & commanded...'), one envelope (lacking stamp), thirteen pages, dust-staining and marks, 8vo, marked 'Private', Mauritius, 12 July and 29 August [18]81 v) Other items, including: cabinet portrait photograph of Wolseley, signed at foot ('Wolseley Genrl. 1889'), by Elliott & Fry, some scuffs, scratches and marks, 167 x 108mm.; lock of Wolseley's hair encased in a glazed gilt-metal memorial pendant, with gilt-metal label attached engraved 'Mr Viscount Wolseley's hair' on recto and 'b.1833-d.1913' on verso, with three empty pendants similarly labelled, roundel 34mm. diameter, length with label 85mm.; enamel memorial plaque for Wolseley by Arthur Gaskin, Olton, Warwickshire (inscribed and dated March 1914 on reverse) depicting his coat of arms, bronze with red, white and gilt enamel, 172 x 118mm., [1914]; small piece of Flemish lace, labelled 'Too small to include in Sotheby's sale'; sample of red velvet from the Coronation robes of the Earl of Cork, worn at the Coronation of George IV (according to accompanying note), etc. Footnotes: 'KARTOUM ALL RIGHT. COULD HOLD OUT FOR YEARS': ONE OF GENERAL GORDON'S FAMOUS MESSAGES SMUGGLED OUT OF KHARTOUM IN THE FINAL DAYS OF THE SEIGE, RETAINED BY HIS FRIEND GARNET WOLSELEY. The diminutive note included in this group has a significance beyond its remarkable survival, as a message that many believe contributed to the delay in British forces relieving the brutal siege of Khartoum, thus leading to the fall of the city and Gordon's death. Several messages written by Gordon are believed to have been smuggled out of Khartoum, and two are particularly noted by scholars. The first dated 14 November 1884 was despatched on the steamer Bordeen and accompanied by a verbal message along the lines of 'come quickly', together with six volumes of Gordon's journals and, presumably, our letters to Wolseley of the same date. A message with the same date and wording as ours, written in the desperate times when the city was starving and Gordon knew all was lost, was received by General Herbert Stewart at Mentemneh on 21 January, days before the city fell on 26 January 1885. It was a perilous task to smuggle these messages through enemy lines, concealed in the clothing or hair '...one tightly folded note being pressed beneath the thumb-nail of the carrier. Another was hidden in a cartridge after the bullet and the powder had been removed...' (Piers Compton, The Last Days of General Gordon, 1974, p.163). Opinions vary as to what Gordon meant by the wording – some say the notes were meant to deceive the Arabs by making them believe that Gordon was successfully holding out, but others point out that this would not have fooled an enemy who knew only too well the state the city was in. Gordon's biographer William F. Butler believes it '...much more probable that he [Gordon] judged the Mahdi would permit the bearers of these written words to proceed to their destination because the messages were calculated to delay the English advance...', but by doing so really allowing the true messages delivered verbally, to reach their destination (Charles George Gordon, 1913, p.247). Sir Charles Wilson, an intelligence officer in charge of the Relief Expedition's advance guard, however, may have himself have been misled by taking the note at face value, since '...although he allowed it to be reported by the newspapers and it was welcomed with jubilation in England, he never referred to it when called upon subsequently to defend himself for not acting with greater promptitude...' (Compton, p.425). Gordon expresses his frustration in another smuggled note included here: '.... I do hope your Intelligence Dept will be a little more energetic...' he writes. The lack of urgency in making preparations and leaving for Khartoum were to cost the British dear. On arrival they found the city had fallen two days earlier, and Gordon and thousands of troops and civilians dead. After this defeat, the British and Egyptian forces withdrew, leaving Sudan in control of the Mahdi under Muhammad Ahmad. Gordon's last entry in his journal is written on 14 December, the same day he writes our letter to his steadfast friend Wolseley, knowing the situation was hopeless ('...it seems all this is at an end...'). In it, he asks Wolseley to settle his cons For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing