1936 Autograph Signed Letter From Evelyn Waugh to Eileen Mayo

Description

Signed, Uncommon, With Letter

An autographed signed letter from Evelyn Waugh to Eileen Mayo, in the original envelope.

Envelope is postmarked the 30th March 1936, addressed to 'Miss Eileen Mayo, 8 Eton Road, London N.W.3'.

Letter reads as, 'Dear Miss Mayo, thank you so much for your letter. I love your picture - but alas I am not allowing myself the luxury of keeping it. I have bought it as a present for my young god-son, Jonathan Guinness. I think it is so important for him to have really good + unaffected pictures round him. Yours sincerely, Evelyn Waugh'.

Dame Eileen Mayo was an artist and designer who worked in many mediums, including tapestry, woodcuts, lithographs, and silk screening. She studied at the Slade School, and designed a platypus stamp for Australia, and six stamps of moths and fish for New Zealand.

The godson Waugh refers to in this letter is Jonathan Bryan Guinness, the 3rd Baron Moyne, who was born in 1930. He was the son of Bryan Guinness and Diana Mitford; this letter was written just seven months before Diana married Oswald Mosley. Waugh had been infatuated with Diana, dedicating his novel 'Vile Bodies' to her, and claiming that her beauty "ran through the room like a peal of bells". The pair were fast friends, moving in the same literary circles, with Waugh living with the Guinnessess for extending periods in 1929 and 1930; however, there was a rupture in their friendship in 1930, with the pair becoming more distant and meeting infrequently. Waugh was likewise a good friend of Nancy.

Letter is written on letter headed paper from the Queen Hotel, Chester. The Chester Queen Hotel opened in 1860, and also saw Charles Dickens and Cecil Rhodes among its guests.