Description:

José Raúl Capablanca Bilingual TLS With Bonus Signed Envelope

A 1p typed letter in French and English signed by Cuban former world chess champion José Raúl Capablanca (1888-1942), as "Capa" along the bottom edge. Written in Havana, Cuba on June 30, 1940 on a single sheet of "Hotel Packard / 51 Prado Boulevard / Havana, Cuba" stationery. With the matching "Hotel Packard" original transmittal envelope additionally signed by Capablanca as "From J.R. Capablanca" in the return postage section. Capablanca has made at least five typographical edits by hand with black pen. The letter shows expected wear, including light flattened folds, else near fine. 8.375" x 11." The envelope postmarked from Havana, Cuba bears a cancelled stamp and is letter-opened at right. Accompanied by a lengthy article by Edward Winter entitled "The Genius and the Princess," discussing the relationship between Capablanca and his second wife, Olga Chubarova Chagodaev (1898-1994).

José Raúl Capablanca, who was the world chess champion between 1921-1927, wrote this letter to his second wife, a self-styled Russian princess named Olga Chagodaev Capablanca. In the letter, José Raúl Capablanca discusses the couple's living arrangements and the interior decoration of their New York apartment. Capablanca seamlessly transitions from French into English in the fourth paragraph, showing how the international couple easily communicated in two languages.

The French portion of the letter, with spelling mistakes, silently corrected, is translated below:

"My dear Kikiriki:

Your letter of the 27[th] arrived yesterday evening and I am very happy to know that you are at 57 [an address] and with new furniture. Because you know how well I like clean things and old furniture always has a dirty air about it.

I just wrote a letter to the Bank, thus, you only have to go see Mr. Offutt, the manager, at Broadway and 74, and talk to him and explain things to him, and he will take care of paying.

I am very happy to know that Rosa is with you and that everything is going well.

The arrangement that you made is good: you will have the month of July to arrange the apartment, without paying for anything. For the rugs, I believe that one must buy them in New York also…

…[English section]…

See you soon dear, lots of love and kisses,

Capa."

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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March 30, 2022 10:30 AM EDT
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