5. Luke, Sir Harry [Lukach, Harry] – ‘the most unwasted life of any man I have known’ – (Sir Ronald Storrs on Sir Harry Luke)
Large Archive / Collection of Sir Harry Luke’s personal letters, photographs and Ephemera from his 39 years of service for the British Colonial Office in Mudros (Gallipoli – Campaign), Cyprus, Malta, Palestine, Sierra Leone, Fiji etc. etc., including working copies of his own publications, written during, after and about locations he was posted at and correspondence he received from friends, family and colleagues in the colonial service during his career. The collection is the very private material Sir Harry surrounded himself with at the time of his death and the collection sensationally also includes his very valuable, handwritten manuscript-notebook of colonial postings-recipe-collections together with his working copy of the sought after cookery book “The Tenth Muse”. The recipe-book, written in the 1930s, includes several pages with historical recipes of Food prepared in Cyprus, with special recipes of “Kyrenia Salad”, “Apricot Brandy (Cyprus)”, “Kyrenia Tomato Paste”, Kyrenia Salad”, or in Malta: “Deviled Chicken Livers (from wife of some Colonel [Dodo Stone] in Malta) or a recipe for Paté “From Soeur Marie Pierre, a nun from the Vendée in Rotuma [Rotuma Island – a dependency of Fiji]. The majority of the collection is now catalogued and visible on our website. A collection of c. 89 letters and 43 items of Ephemera has not been catalogued yet.
[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. England / Palestine / Israel / Malta / Cyprus, Fiji / Sierra Leone etc., 1898 – 1968. Octavo / Quarto / Folio. c.15000 pages (books) / Collection of hundreds of Letters (see images) / Photographs and ephemera etc. Original Hardcover / Softover – Bindings (also private interim-bindings), often with the rare dustjackets in protective collector’s Mylar, some without dustjackets. Very good condition with only minor signs of external wear. Please check our website under “Libraries & Collections” and see detailed listings of books and letters, all categorized.