This looks pretty dull at first glance… until you start stripping away the layers.

It’s a letter from Germany to England sent in January 1933. So far so ordinary. A closer look at sender and recipient and it becomes less so.

From Angelina Von Weech to Ambrose Heal. He had just become Sir Ambrose Heal and rhe letter is congratulating him on his knighthood. It was awarded for services to the furniture industry and commerce. Its a name that will be familiar to those in the UK - Heals, with its flagship shop in central London, was, and is, a pioneer in modern furniture design albeit now overshadowed by Habitat. Think IKEA but classier. It was an old family business but Ambrose was the man who drove it to a new level.

Angelina was the wife of Sigmund Von Weech as per the letterhead. He was also a famous designer, not just of furniture but also of POSTAGE STAMPS and was responsible for some of the most recognisable German stamps in the 1920s. So there is an unexpected philatelic strand to this item.

The thing that gives the letter even more interest is the timing of it. Sent from Munich on 21 Jan 1933. Nine days later Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor and we know what happened next. In terms of the friendship captured in this letter it’s safe to say it probably didn’t last. The paths of Heal and Von Weech diverged. When WWII broke out Heal gave his factories over to producing parachutes for the RAF. Von Weech meanwhile was commissioned to design an emblem for the Luftwaffe, not to mention a spot of interior design work for high ups.