1904 M.K. Gandhi Handwritten Letter
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GUEST:
Well, this is a handwritten letter from M.K. Gandhi to my grandmother. When she was working for him, she was Julia Scott Dick. And then she married Archibald MacDonald. So she became Julia Scott Dick MacDonald.
APPRAISER:
And she's actually referenced in Gandhi's autobiography in the section that he writes about his years in Johannesburg.
GUEST:
Yes, he talks about her for a page or so, about how she was his first secretary, and he talks about her very nicely, even in his autobiography, I think, so...
APPRAISER:
And the second letter?
GUEST:
And the second letter is a letter of recommendation, so she would have something to produce if she wanted another job, that she had done a good job and he's attesting to it.
APPRAISER:
(chuckles) It's really a critical period in his life.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Long before he became the Mahatma Gandhi that we know, but the young man who was developing his philosophy, and you have his letter to her, essentially saying goodbye to her. She had met your grandfather.
GUEST:
My grandfather, and Mr. Gandhi walked her down the aisle, yeah. And he even says it was his pleasure to join them. He wrote on the fifth of November in 1904, "Dear Mrs. MacDonald, May I ask your acceptance of the accompanying as a small wedding present from me? I feel that my loss is Mr. MacDonald's gain. With a brother's love, M.K. Gandhi."
APPRAISER:
Such an intimate letter.
GUEST:
Yes. And they corresponded for years afterwards, so...
APPRAISER:
And do any, do more letters exist?
GUEST:
They, I think they do. I have to get in touch with my cousins, because, um, I think there may be more letters, which now has got me interested into finding them.
APPRAISER:
Definitely, definitely. Yes. You would never sell them.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
But were you to, it would be a… a shame to break them up, because they really are, they're telling a story about one relationship. Right. And uh so I, I see them as a, as a single unit in terms of how I value them. Something like this today at auction would easily be estimated at $10,000 to $15,000.
GUEST:
Oh, my goodness, okay.
APPRAISER:
And you could expect that it could bring in excess of that.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
So as an insurance figure, I would be, be very comfortable saying $20,000 on the two.
GUEST:
Okay, thank you.
APPRAISER:
My pleasure. It's wonderful.
GUEST:
Lovely, well, thank you, and thank you from my grandmother.
APPRAISER:
Thank you, Grandmother.
GUEST:
(chuckles)
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