Mdivani (Nina, Princess)

A collection of letters and invitations to Princess Nina Mdivani from a number of notable figures from the 1960s, including: Charles Edison, Francis Rose, (two letters and invitations to exhibitions), the King of Tonga (telegram apologising for not being able to meet Nina due to a royal engagement), the Ambassador of the Republic of the Côte d'Ivoire, Japanese diplomat Tetsuro Furugaki, Clementine Spencer-Churchill (brief letter thanking Nina for her sympathy and condolences following the death of her son Randolph Churchill in 1968), model Tania Duckworth, Nina’s god daughter who in 1966 entered into an ‘anti-marriage’ with Lord Alexander Weymouth at the age of seventeen (two letters recount their ‘anti-honeymoon’ in the south of France where Alexander was beaten by a group of Frenchmen for having long hair, and Tania and he nearly sank a boat whilst sailing in a storm to St Tropez to get their boat repaired), Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wodeyar (two letters providing an intimate snapshot of the troubles India was facing at that time "‘Mysore state is having a lot of disturbances over the settlement of the border land between Bombay and Mysore. So many accidents too. There seems to be no peace in the world today. All over the place there is trouble"), v.s. 1966-1968.

***Nina was married to Charles Henry Huberich, a Stanford professor and lawyer, from 15 July 1925 until their divorce on 19 May 1936. On 18 August 1936 she married Denis Conan Doyle, a son of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. After Denis's death on 9 March 1955, she married Anthony Harwood, a secretary to her previous husband.