Christmas cards and memos sent by the royal family to a photo specialist smashed estimates at auction – and the top lot boasted a quirky note from the late Queen Elizabeth.
Her memorundum to Alan Maxwell, a man who looked after the family’s photo needs for decades, read, ‘Please check the print with the negatives to find out which is missing – eaten by the puppies – ER’. The lot, which also included informal pictures of Elizabeth with her dogs, signed thank-you letters and 13 photo memos, hammered at £1,900 from a £500-£700 guide at Hansons Auctioneers’ Derbyshire saleroom. [Dec 12, 2024]
Bidding was fierce for some 45 lots in the 1970s-1990s royal collection. It featured more than 60 Christmas and New Year cards, photo memos, images and thank-you notes. All were sent by Queen Elizabeth II, Diana, Princess of Wales, King Charles (then Prince Charles), The Queen Mother, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and the Duke and Duchess of Kent to Mr Maxwell, a photographic and camera specialist at London’s Wallace H Eaton Ltd, official suppliers to the royal family.
Mr Maxwell, who originated from near Harrogate, Yorkshire, and passed away 15 years ago, assisted with royal photography needs, such as supplying and framing prints, advising on camera issues and assisting with image choices for royal Christmas cards. The overall pre-sale top estimate for the collection was nearly £8,000 but it achieved £12,855 [hammer] – and every lot sold.
Charles Hanson, owner of Hansons Auctioneers, said: “Buyers from the UK, USA and Europe competed for these wonderful finds. Mr Maxwell assisted the royal family for decades. He was a man of absolute discretion. As well as managing general photo requests, he printed and framed Christmas cards. In a digital age it’s easy to forget people had to send off films to be developed. The royal family, among the most photograped people in the world, relied on Mr Maxwell for their photographic needs, and he was a perfectionist.”
The find was made by Justin Matthews, regional director for Hansons Kent and Sussex. He said: “I found out about the collection at Kent’s Edenbridge and Oxted Agricultural Show in August [2024]. The seller came over to Hansons’ stand and mentioned that she had some royal memorabilia in a box at the bottom of her wardrobe. We arranged for her to bring it to Hansons’ Penshurst office in Kent a few days later and I was amazed!”
Other items to excel included lot 438, a 1984 signed Christmas card from the Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales (1961-1997) plus loose images and negatives. It hammered at £1,000 from a £250-£350 estimate and is heading to the USA. From the same estimate, hammer prices of £750 were achieved for lot 440, a 1983 Charles and Diana Christmas card, and lot 433, a personal thank-you note from Diana.
It read, ‘Dear Mr Maxwell, A very special thank you for coming to our rescue at such short notice! I did appreciate enormously the speed in which the photographs arrived here & am only sorry for the trouble we must have caused! Yours most sincerely, Diana’.
Her enduring popularity was also underlined by lot 435, professional portrait images of her which reached £400 from a £50-£100 guide.
The top lot [472, sold £1,900] included a 1993 letter from King Charles (then Prince Charles) which does much to explain Mr Maxwell’s importance to the royals. It reads, ‘Dear Mr Maxwell, I just wanted to thank you so much for all the time and effort you put into producing possible Christmas cards for me this year. I couldn’t be more pleased with what you have achieved from some pretty unpromising material!
‘I thought you did wonders in interpreting my ideas of having a card made up of three small pictures, and only narrowly preferred the group version in the end. I only hope it is appreciated by several thousand recipients …
‘I am sorry that my ridiculously congested programme meant that you had a fruitless journey to London, and that I did not have an opportunity to congratulate you in person, but did want you to know how grateful I am for all you have done on this and other projects. What on Earth would I do without you?! Yours sincerely, Charles’.
Auction: The royal memorabilia, lots 472-471, sold in Hansons Auctioneers’ December 12, 2024 Fine Art and Decorative Arts Auction at the firm’s Derbyshire saleroom.
