The New York Sale
Auction 33 9 January 2014
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RUSSIAN MEDALS. ORDERS OF THE USSR. International Lenin Prize for Peace documented Set to Denis Nowell Pritt, Q.C., and presentations to Pritt on his 70th Birthday, along with related items. The medal set includes:
• The Gold International Lenin Prize for Peace medal, in original burgundy case of issue, official issue as the De-Stalinization exchange/replacement for The Stalin Prize for Peace medal.
• Soviet Peace Committee gilt Medal in box of issue; with Testimonial Diploma, November 1969, and official English version on a separate sheet, both signed by Committee officials.
• B&W photos of Pritt, wearing the Lenin Peace Prize and other medals, with Walter Ulbricht. German Democratic Republic Presentations to Pritt on his 70th Birthday include:
• Leipzig Honorary Citizenship, 22 September 1957, vellum scroll, 300 x 602 mm, bestowed by the City Council and the Senate of the City of Leipzig upon "Denis Nowell Pritt... Holder of the Lenin Peace Prize... for recognition of his courageous behavior in the London Counter Trial of the Reichstag Fire Trial, which, next to the steadfast behavior of Georgi Dimitrov, effectively contributed to the unmasking of the Fascist guilt...." The scroll is rolled into the gilt-embossed leather tube of issue (410 x 82 mm), which fits into a presentation box with removable lid. The inside of which contains a fitted concave "bed" for the tube to rest upon. (Leipzig was The site of the official Reichstag Fire trial of G. Dimitrov, etc. in 1933)
• Union of Democratic Jurists of Germany patent leather presentation box (220 x 268 mm.), the cover gilt inscribed to Pritt on his 70th birthday. The box contains 24 b&w photographs of the Reichstag Fire trial, participants, documents etc. Also includes:
--Books by Pritt: Light on Moscow (1940); The USSR, Our Ally (1941); A New World Grows: USSR 1917-1943 (1943); Russia is for Peace (1952)
--Books by Pritt about the Reichstag Fire: The Burning of the Reichstag: Official Findings of the Committee of Inquiry (1933); Der Reichstagsbrand (Berlin, 1959), Title page autographed in ink by Pritt.
--Book about the Reichstag Fire: Reichstag Fire: Ashes of Democracy (1972). The Lenin Peace Prize medal to Pritt is only the third ever auctioned in the Western World (and The first De-Stalinization exchange/replacement ever auctioned); fewer than 100 were ever awarded. Famous Laureates include Khrushchev, Castro, Picasso, Brezhnev, and Mandela. Pritt's 1957 Leipzig honorary citizenship was the twelfth such honor from a major German city ever presented to a foreigner, and is apparently the only such honor to a foreigner ever auctioned; it was the first such honor bestowed by Leipzig, and the first from any major German city to a foreigner, since World War II. Its cleverly elaborate physical format is extremely rare, as most such German city honors were in simple folio format. (Until the 1970's, Nobel Peace Prize diplomas were presented in rolled, rather than folio, format.) _
188 This lot may be by far the most historically significant lot pertaining to the Reichstag Fire ever auctioned. Denis Nowell Pritt, (1887-1972), barrister, member of the British Parliament (1935-1950), and a Queen's Councillor, is considered the most universally significant lawyer of the middle third of the 20th Century. In 1954, he received a Stalin Peace Prize. (In 1956, Destalinization led to each Laureate being asked to exchange the Stalin Peace Prize medal for a Lenin Peace Prize medal.) Pritt gained world renown as chairman of the international Legal Commission of Inquiry (held in London) into the 1933
Reichstag Fire, one of the most controversial crimes of modern times whose impact and origins is still hotly debated by scholars. The Commission's Findings that the fire was likely started by the Nazis, not the Communists, created a bombshell heard around the world, and probably helped much to stimulate anti-Nazi activism in many countries. Years later, Winston Churchill replaced G. Dimitrov and Pritt as the clear symbol of the "respectable" anti-Nazi movement in the West. The Findings of this "Counter-trial" were announced by Pritt in London on 28 September 1933, days after the start of the Nazi government's trial in Leipzig of a group of Communists on charges of having plotted the arson. Hitler, who had become Reich's Chancellor weeks before the 27 February fire, had attributed it to a Communist conspiracy, using this charge to justify his immediate suspension of civil liberties guaranteed in the Weimar Republic Constitution. The German trial judge's subsequent acquittal of Dimitrov and other Communist defendants was widely seen as a vindication of Pritt's Findings. Pritt has been viewed by the Western Right as a classic "fellow traveler", but was never a member of the Communist Party. His services were in the highest demand from business interests, but he would never take a case against "the little guy". He would defend, usually pro bono, victims of political prosecutions, the most famous being Jomo Kenyatta, Julius Nyerere, and Ho Chi Minh, whose life was arguably saved by Pritt's intervention in 1931. Condition: Problem-free, Extremely rare and of high historical importance
Estimate: US$ 50,000
• The Gold International Lenin Prize for Peace medal, in original burgundy case of issue, official issue as the De-Stalinization exchange/replacement for The Stalin Prize for Peace medal.
• Soviet Peace Committee gilt Medal in box of issue; with Testimonial Diploma, November 1969, and official English version on a separate sheet, both signed by Committee officials.
• B&W photos of Pritt, wearing the Lenin Peace Prize and other medals, with Walter Ulbricht. German Democratic Republic Presentations to Pritt on his 70th Birthday include:
• Leipzig Honorary Citizenship, 22 September 1957, vellum scroll, 300 x 602 mm, bestowed by the City Council and the Senate of the City of Leipzig upon "Denis Nowell Pritt... Holder of the Lenin Peace Prize... for recognition of his courageous behavior in the London Counter Trial of the Reichstag Fire Trial, which, next to the steadfast behavior of Georgi Dimitrov, effectively contributed to the unmasking of the Fascist guilt...." The scroll is rolled into the gilt-embossed leather tube of issue (410 x 82 mm), which fits into a presentation box with removable lid. The inside of which contains a fitted concave "bed" for the tube to rest upon. (Leipzig was The site of the official Reichstag Fire trial of G. Dimitrov, etc. in 1933)
• Union of Democratic Jurists of Germany patent leather presentation box (220 x 268 mm.), the cover gilt inscribed to Pritt on his 70th birthday. The box contains 24 b&w photographs of the Reichstag Fire trial, participants, documents etc. Also includes:
--Books by Pritt: Light on Moscow (1940); The USSR, Our Ally (1941); A New World Grows: USSR 1917-1943 (1943); Russia is for Peace (1952)
--Books by Pritt about the Reichstag Fire: The Burning of the Reichstag: Official Findings of the Committee of Inquiry (1933); Der Reichstagsbrand (Berlin, 1959), Title page autographed in ink by Pritt.
--Book about the Reichstag Fire: Reichstag Fire: Ashes of Democracy (1972). The Lenin Peace Prize medal to Pritt is only the third ever auctioned in the Western World (and The first De-Stalinization exchange/replacement ever auctioned); fewer than 100 were ever awarded. Famous Laureates include Khrushchev, Castro, Picasso, Brezhnev, and Mandela. Pritt's 1957 Leipzig honorary citizenship was the twelfth such honor from a major German city ever presented to a foreigner, and is apparently the only such honor to a foreigner ever auctioned; it was the first such honor bestowed by Leipzig, and the first from any major German city to a foreigner, since World War II. Its cleverly elaborate physical format is extremely rare, as most such German city honors were in simple folio format. (Until the 1970's, Nobel Peace Prize diplomas were presented in rolled, rather than folio, format.) _
188 This lot may be by far the most historically significant lot pertaining to the Reichstag Fire ever auctioned. Denis Nowell Pritt, (1887-1972), barrister, member of the British Parliament (1935-1950), and a Queen's Councillor, is considered the most universally significant lawyer of the middle third of the 20th Century. In 1954, he received a Stalin Peace Prize. (In 1956, Destalinization led to each Laureate being asked to exchange the Stalin Peace Prize medal for a Lenin Peace Prize medal.) Pritt gained world renown as chairman of the international Legal Commission of Inquiry (held in London) into the 1933
Reichstag Fire, one of the most controversial crimes of modern times whose impact and origins is still hotly debated by scholars. The Commission's Findings that the fire was likely started by the Nazis, not the Communists, created a bombshell heard around the world, and probably helped much to stimulate anti-Nazi activism in many countries. Years later, Winston Churchill replaced G. Dimitrov and Pritt as the clear symbol of the "respectable" anti-Nazi movement in the West. The Findings of this "Counter-trial" were announced by Pritt in London on 28 September 1933, days after the start of the Nazi government's trial in Leipzig of a group of Communists on charges of having plotted the arson. Hitler, who had become Reich's Chancellor weeks before the 27 February fire, had attributed it to a Communist conspiracy, using this charge to justify his immediate suspension of civil liberties guaranteed in the Weimar Republic Constitution. The German trial judge's subsequent acquittal of Dimitrov and other Communist defendants was widely seen as a vindication of Pritt's Findings. Pritt has been viewed by the Western Right as a classic "fellow traveler", but was never a member of the Communist Party. His services were in the highest demand from business interests, but he would never take a case against "the little guy". He would defend, usually pro bono, victims of political prosecutions, the most famous being Jomo Kenyatta, Julius Nyerere, and Ho Chi Minh, whose life was arguably saved by Pritt's intervention in 1931. Condition: Problem-free, Extremely rare and of high historical importance
Estimate: US$ 50,000