Lot #245

Mata Hari

Description

THE SPY WHO LOVED HIM: Less than a year before her capture and execution, MATA HARI pines for a missing paramour “whom I fear wounded or dead and who loved me a lot”

Dutch-born dancer (1876–1917), née Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, whose renown as a dancer was permanently overshadowed by her activities as an Axis spy during World War I. After working as a model and circus performer, Zelle began performing as an “exotic” dancer in 1905 and changed her name to the more colorful Mata Hari. Her erotically charged performances and mysterious persona captured the imagination of audiences wherever she performed, and her charms were such that she attained a considerable reputation as a high-class courtesan whose “clients” included Europe’s political and military elite. After claiming to work as an intelligence agent for the French during World War I, she was unmasked as a double agent who used her relative ease of movement across international borders (as a “neutral” Dutch subject) to pass secrets to the Germans. Captured in her Paris hotel room on February 13, 1917, she was tried, convicted (despite inconclusive evidence against her), and executed by firing squad at the age of forty-one. Elusive ALS in French, signed “Mata-Hari,” four pages on two adjoining sheets, 7.75 x 7.5, Nieuwe Uitleg 16, La Haye letterhead, no date [a pencil notation in another hand reading “14.3.16”]. Mata Hari writes to “mon cher consul.” In full: “I would be very grateful if you could organize my papers anyway. Please read the letter attached that I received last night as you can see. I could still see my friend [male] and have the costume made that I need to dance Mrs. Bangeville’s minuet. Also, please have the letter sent to Jean Le Franc whom I fear wounded or dead and who loved me a lot. I did not receive any news from him for six weeks. And “last not least” [in English in the text] here is the novel. Kind regards with all my thanks in return.” Jean le Franc, one of Mata Hari’s lovers, was a French officer serving in Spain at the beginning of World War I. In fine condition, with intersecting mailing folds, one through the paraph of the signature, some scattered mild wrinkles and creases, and a couple trivial spots to first page. While Mata Hari is elusive in any form, handwritten letters in such an appealing state of preservation are of the greatest scarcity. Auction LOA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.

Auction Info

• Auction Title:
• Dates: #328 - Ended December 12, 2007