With love from Lilibet! Charming embroidered card made by the Queen, aged five, for the royal physician will go up for auction alongside hand-written letters from the Queen Mother
- Piece of embroidery made by Princess Elizabeth is set to go under the hammer
- The royal created the piece at the age of five for physician Sir Frederick Still
- She also signed her name on a letter thanking him for a ‘new dolly with a squeak’
- Items are part of a collection of items sent to Sir Frederick by the Queen Mother
A delightful embroidered card made by the Queen as a child is tipped to fetch £5,000 at auction.
The then five-year-old Princess Elizabeth painstakingly stitched an image of a baby in a green and pink pram to give to royal physician Sir Frederick Still in 1932.
She also signed her name ‘Lilibet’ on a letter thanking Sir Frederick for her ‘new dolly with a squeak in the tummy’.
The then five-year-old Princess Elizabeth painstakingly stitched an image of a baby in a green and pink pram to give to royal physician Sir Frederick Still in 1932
The handmade card by Elizabeth (pictured in 1936) is expected to fetch £5,000 at auction
The deeply personal items are part of a collection of royal memorabilia that will go under the hammer at David Lay & FRICS in Penzance, Cornwall, on Thursday.
It also includes letters sent to Sir David by the Queen Mother, who built up a close relationship with the physician during his years in service to the Royal Family.
Among the most touching is a letter dated December 26, 1930 that was dictated by the then four-year-old Princess Elizabeth to her mother.
It reads: ‘Dear Doctor Still. I loved my dolly that had a squeak in her tummy. Thank you for my lovely dolly, and we laughed at the squeak so much. Did you have a nice Christmas? From Lilibet.’
The young princess signed her own name and her mother added the postscript: ‘A dictated letter!’
In 1927 the Queen Mother wrote to Sir David to thank him for looking after Princess Elizabeth while she joined King George VI, then the Duke of York, on a tour of Australia and New Zealand, leaving her young daughter at home.
The princess also signed her name ‘Lilibet’ on a letter thanking Sir Frederick for her ‘new dolly with a squeak in the tummy’, pictured. She dictated the letter to her mother
She wrote: ‘I really cannot thank you enough for all your wonderful kindness of thought for the baby all the time I was away – you have no idea what a vast relief it was to me, to know that you were visiting her, and that she was still under your wing, so to speak, as when one is on the other side of the world, one imagines all sorts of silly things.
‘I am also very, very grateful for your long letters so full of the details that I longed for, and I need to scrabble through my letters, and pounce on yours, as I knew there would be real news of Elizabeth in it.
‘Thank you so very much. She is so well and happy, and I have to thank you too for her health – I did so want her to be strong, it will be such a help to her. Ever yours sincerely, Elizabeth.’
The collection, which also includes a signed coronation photograph and the doctor’s Royal commission documents, has an estimated total value of £10,000.
In 1927 the Queen Mother wrote to Sir David to thank him for looking after Princess Elizabeth while she joined King George VI, then the Duke of York, on a tour of Australia and New Zealand, leaving her young daughter at home
Dr Still, who died in 1941, worked at Guy’s Hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Evelina Hospital of Sick Children.
The Londoner, often referred to as the ‘father of British paediatrics’, rose from humble beginnings to become Physician to the Royal Household and was knighted in 1937.
Mimi Connell-Lay, from the auctioneers, said: ‘This small, remarkable and entirely charming collection of letters, cuttings and photographs stand testament to the high regard in which Sir Frederick Still was held, particularly by the Royal Family.
The collection, which also includes a signed coronation photograph and the doctor’s Royal commission documents, has an estimated total value of £10,000
‘It is clear from the affectionate, yet respectful tone of Her Majesty The Queen Mother, that she valued his care and advice enormously.
‘The delightful embroidery made by Her Majesty the Queen when she was just five years old, is both a token of affection and also a thing of incredible rarity.
‘Items of such a personal nature relating to our present Queen virtually never come onto the open market and the sale of these pieces poses an exciting opportunity for collectors of royal memorabilia.’
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