Rare unsigned photo with original negative (H. G., 1866-1946, Novelist)]

taken during his stay in Estonia in August 1934, where he visited his beloved baroness Budberg, who is sitting on his left, they are sitting outdoors at a table with two other women and some children, together with a picture of the house in Estonia where Wells lived with his mistress, each 7" x 5", with the original negative for the picture, 2" x 2½", Estonia, Maria Ignatievna BUDBERG also known variously as Countess Benckendorff and Baroness Budberg (1893-1974) was a Russian adventuress and suspected double agent of OGPU and British Intelligence Service. In 1920, Budberg met British author H. G. Wells when he made a celebrated visit to Maxim Gorky in Moscow, he had slept with Gorky's mistress Moura and they became lovers. She was briefly married, on 13th November 1921, to Baron Nikolai (Rotger Emil Arthur Friedrich) von Budberg-Bönningshausen (born 1896). The union was in the nature of a marriage of convenience, and they soon divorced. It provided her with a passport and thus an ability to leave Russia to visit both her children in Estonia and Gorky in Italy. It is said that the Baron Budberg, a shady character, eventually disappeared in Brazil. Moura's relationship with Wells was renewed in 1933 in London, where she had emigrated after parting with Gorky. The close relationship continued until Wells's death in 1946. He had asked her to marry him, but Budberg strongly rejected the proposal.