An extremely rich two-day auction with 551 rare books, documents, manuscripts, photographs, posters and prints will be held by VERGOS Auctions on Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 February at the Athens Plaza Hotel at 5.30pm.

Archive of Nikos and Ariadne Velmos

The section of 2,528 glass negatives (photographic portraits) from the archive of the Kastoria photographer Leonidas Papazoglou (1872-1918) stands out in the auction, which covers the transitional period, both politically and culturally, experienced by Kastoria and the wider region of it, like the whole of Macedonia at the beginning of the 20th century, with an important part belonging to the period of the Macedonian Struggle and by extension to the years before the liberation of 1912. The archive has been digitized and part of it has been exhibited at the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, at the Benaki Museum and elsewhere.

Dionysios Solomos, Hymn to Liberty, Mesolonghi, Dimitrios Mestheneus, 1825

Among the other items in the auction, the following are also of great interest:

–The official announcement of the death of Lord Byron. The philhellenic poet breathes his last breath in Messolonghi on 7 April 1824. With this single leaf Alexander Mavrokordatos announces the death of Byron and the eulogies that will follow.

– An autograph of the great hagiographer and writer Fotis Kontoglou (1895-1965) for his work “Holy Greece” (1946).

Fotis Kontoglou, Αutograph, Holy Greece

– The second edition of the Hymn to Liberty by Dionysios Solomos, which was printed in 1825 during the siege of Messolonghi by the heroic printer Dimitrios Mestheneas.

Single leaf announcement of the death of Lord Byron, (1824)

– The rich and unique archive of the life and work of Nikos Velmos (1890-1930), which includes drawings, correspondence, texts, printed matter, photographs, exhibition and publication material. Actor, poet, writer, editor of the magazine “Fragelio” (1926-1929), painter, critic and founder of the art gallery “Asylon Technis”, Velmos was a peculiar personality of the first decade of the inter-war period, who lived at the centre of intellectual events.

Papazoglou Leonidas, Section of 2528 glass negatives from the period of the Macedonian Struggle (1900-1918)

Interested parties may participate in the auction by physical presence, online as well as through written and/or telephone bids. For more information, please visit www.vergosauctions.com.