[TREATY OF VERSAILLES]: An 8vo feint ruled page removed from a notebook and bearing a rare set of six fine, bold ...

[TREATY OF VERSAILLES]: An 8vo feint ruled page removed from a notebook and bearing a rare set of six fine, bold black fountain pen ink signatures comprising Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924, American President 1913-21, Nobel Peace Prize winner, 1919; dated 7th January 1919 in his hand), Edith Bolling Wilson (1872-1961, First Lady of the United States 1915-21, the second wife of Woodrow Wilson), John J. Pershing (1860-1948, American General of World War I), William G. Sharp (1859-1922, American lawyer and diplomat, United States Ambassador to France 1914-19), Alexander I of Yugoslavia (1888-1934, Prince Regent of Serbia from 1914 and later King of Yugoslavia 1929-34, assassinated) and Oscar Straus (1850-1926, American politician and diplomat who served as United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor 1906-09 and as United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire 1909-10). To the verso appear a further four black fountain pen ink signatures, each unidentified, although including two French (?) Generals, one attached to the French military mission to Russia, and a Swedish military attaché. Neatly inlaid and with an integral leaf. VG Woodrow Wilson's signature is dated shortly ahead of the meeting of 'The Big Four' (comprising Georges Clemenceau of France, David Lloyd George of the United Kingdom, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando of Italy, and Wilson) at the Paris Peace Conference which commenced on 18th January 1919 with the Allies aiming to establish a common negotiating position. Almost exactly a year earlier, on 8th January 1918, Wilson had issued his Fourteen Points, a statement of principles for peace that was to be used for peace negotiations in order to end World War I. The address was well received in the United States and Allied nations and even by Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, as a landmark of enlightenment in international relations. Wilson subsequently used the Fourteen Points as the basis for negotiating the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the war and became effective on 10th January 1920. Provenance: The present signatures were obtained by the French aviator Amedee de Flers (b.1885) who saw service during World War I.