Previous Lot Next Lot

Auction: 320 - The Numismatic Collector's Series Sale and the Forest Park Collection
Lot: 1157

Sarawak: Brooke, Charles Vyner, Rajah (1874-1963). Third and last "White Rajah" of Sarawak. Succeeded on the death of his father, Charles Johnson Brooke, in 1917. Vyner maintained the popular Brooke rule which kept Sarawak's social institutions and culture intact (save headhunting which was aggressively suppressed and outlawed); thanks to an economic boost from a boom in Sarawak's rubber and oil industries, he was able to modernize the state. After World War II, Vyner abdicated and ceded Sarawak in 1946 to Great Britain as a Crown Colony, a move that saw strong opposition locally. Autograph Letter Signed "Vyner Brooke". One and a half pages, 5 x 7 7/8", Astana, 8/1/1932. Writing to James Colin Swayne, Chief Secretary of Sarawak, Vyner says he sees "no unfairness to Owen's candidate in appointing a cadet with legal knowledge". He ends with thanks for Swayne's kind inquiries regarding the Ranee's health, who "has a slight chill or touch of influenza". Spindle hole upper left, Fine.

Sold for
$150