PRAGUE

Sir (James William) Ronald Macleay (1870-1943) was educated at Charterhouse and Balliol College, Oxford. He entered the diplomatic service in 1895. According to his obituary in The Times, 8 March 1943, Macleay 'achieved much' in 'an unostentatious way', during a diplomatic career spanning four decades, and was known by his colleagues as 'the Worthy Master'.

Fürth obtained his doctorate from the German University in Prague. From the beginning of the Second World War he was a research assistant to Max Born at Edinburgh University. After the war he became one of Born’s principal research collaborators, before moving to Birkbeck College in London. The archive as a whole is in good condition, on aged paper, with the text of all the items clear and complete. ITEM ONE: Quarto (28.5 x 22 cm) graph-paper notebook, with around 100 pages in German, apparently listing, with circuit diagrams, the results of electrical experiments. Occasional insertions.

12mo, 3 pp. Good, on browned and lightly creased paper with some wear to extremities. In French. Long thorough order with instructions for delivery, casting light on the logistical problems encountered in international trade in nineteenth-century Europe. Pražak is sending 'six pièces d'or à vingt francs, ou une somme de 120 francs en or', and gives a list of four books he would like sent to him. There follows a discussion of the problems of delivering the books to Prague.

Two pages, folio. Good, but on discoloured and lightly creased paper, with remains of stub adhering to one edge of verso. In English, with illegible signature. Begins 'The State Office of Statistics appreciating fully the great importance of an exact information of the British publicity of the conditions in the Czechoslovakia has the honour to send you simultaneously her following publications.' Five items listed.