Travel & Exploration
BAKER
(Florence, 1841-1916, Explorer, wife of Sir Samuel White, bought in an Ottoman Slave Market)
Fine Autograph Letter Signed to Mrs Belfield
thanking her for her kind thought, it is indeed too good of you to send us such a charming box of flowers which have just arrived and look lovely in our little sitting room. What a very sweet scent they have!... It was a great pleasure to see you and Colonel Belfield again and we hope that when you came into our neighbourhood you will pay us a visit. We should be delighted to see you in our home. We shall not forget your kind invitation on our return to Bath... I heard from Mrs Young this morning, she is going to London on Wednesday we shall see her on Tuesday..., 3 sides 8vo., with original autograph envelope, The Grand Pump Room Hotel, Bath, headed paper with a vignette of the hotel by C. W. Radway at the head, 5th May
Item Date: 1893
£275
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Background
Florence was a Transylvanian-born ethnic Hungarian British explorer. Born in Transylvania, she became an orphan when her parents and brother were murdered by the Romanian marauders led by Ioan Axente Sever. She fled with the remnants of the Hungarian army to the Ottoman Empire, settling in Vidin. There, she was sold as a slave in 1859. Years later, Samuel Baker encountered her during a visit to the Vidin white slave auction. Florence, a white slave girl destined for the Ottoman Pasha of Vidin, caught Baker's eye. Although outbid by the Pasha, Baker bribed her guards, and the two escaped together. Florence became Baker's companion and later his wife. Sir Samuel died in December of the year of this letter.
Stock No. 43741
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