A scarce 1936 Berlin Olympics commemorative book produced by...

Hammer

£28

A scarce 1936 Berlin Olympics commemorative book produced by the Icelandic company O. Johnson & Kaaber, 'Hinir XI. Olympisku Leikar I Berlin 1936', containing 138 tipped in colour illustrations from photographs of athletes competing in the games, various elements of the ceromonies and stadia, various dignitaries, many of them Third Reich, etc., athletes pictured include Jesse Owens, Archie Williams, Gunnar Hockert, Harald Whitlock, Forest Towns, Glen Hardin, Naoto Tajima, Lutz Long, Tilly Fleischer, Helen Stephens, Franco Riccardi, Louis Hostin etc etc, oblong 4to (27 x 33cm), original quarter cloth. The Reykjavik wholesale company O. Johnson & Kaaber was formed in 1906 and predominantly imported and produced coffee and ersatz coffee in the 1930's, as well as exporting a few items such as wool, lamb hides and cod liver oil. During the 1930's the British government was alarmed by Germany's growing interest in Iceland. When WWII began, the Kingdom of Iceland declared itself to be neutral, however it did not closely enforce limitations within its territorial waters and even slashed funding for the Icelandic Coast Guard, and many Axis merchant vessels sought shelter within the neutral waters around Iceland. The German diplomatic presence in Iceland, along with the island's strategic importance, alarmed the British, and after a few failed diplomatic attempts to persuade the Icelandic government to join the Allies, the British invaded Iceland on 10 May 1940, one month after the German invasion of Denmark.