STANSTED MOUNTFITCHET, UK — Nearly two dozen letters and cards from Diana, Princess of Wales to her family’s former housekeeper Violet Collison were sold by Sworders on July 30. The 20-year correspondence between the princess and the lady she knew simply as Collie provided a tidy nest egg, generating close to £40,000 (about $52,000).
Violet Collison had been the head housekeeper for John Spencer, Viscount Althorp and his wife Frances Ruth Roche at Park House on the Sandringham Estate in England. While in service, she welcomed the births of four Spencer children — Sarah, Jane, Diana (later Diana, Princess of Wales), and Charles — and later, after the Spencers’ marriage broke down, followed Frances to London in 1967. Working for Frances and Peter Shand Kydd until retirement in 1973. Collie remained close to Frances and the Spencer children until she died in 2013 at the age of 89.
The collection of cards and letters date from just before and during her marriage to Charles, Prince of Wales, the birth of their two children Princes William and Harry, and beyond. Invited to the royal wedding on July 29, 1981, she also received a ticket for the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales on September 6, 1997.
As most were brief thank-you notes for Christmas and birthday presents, it was the one or two lines regarding Diana’s life at the time that determined commercial worth.
A double-sided letter, written on Buckingham Palace notepaper to Collie thanking her for a birthday present, is dated July 8, 1981, only three weeks before the royal wedding. The then-Lady Diana Spencer observes: “Everyone frantically busy here doing last minute decorations … the bride-to-be has remained quite calm!” In its original envelope addressed in Diana’s hand, the lot made £5,500 ($7,010, or $8,765 with buyer’s premium).
Writing as the Princess of Wales on Kensington Palace notepaper on September 25, 1984, Diana thanks her former housekeeper for a gift to Prince Harry. She notes that “William adores his little brother & spends the entire time pouring an endless supply of hugs & kisses over Harry.” Offered together with a Christmas card from the same year, this lot rose to £10,000 ($12,750, or $15,930 with buyer’s premium).
Violet Collison’s personal invitations to the royal wedding, including a copy of the order of service, was offered together with ticket no. 109 for the funeral of Diana plus other correspondence related to the memorial service of Diana, Princess of Wales on August 31, 2007. With an estimate of £200-£300 ($255-$385), this lot made £1,000 ($1,275, or $1,600 with buyer’s premium).
The sale also included a document signed by the infamous Coldwater, Michigan medical doctor and murderer Hawley Harvey Crippen (1862-1910).
Handwritten from London’s Pentonville Prison on November 17, 1910, less than a week before his execution for the murder of his wife, Dr. Crippen explains his decision to name his mistress Ethel Clara Le Neve as his sole executrix in his will. “It should be known how perfectly I trust her in every way, that she has given me the only real happiness I have ever known, that I love her above all else in this life and that for nearly four years she has been united with me in heart, soul and body as my wife”.
More than a century after the headless body of Cora Henrietta Crippen was found buried in a cellar, the case of Dr. Crippen — the first criminal to be captured with the aid of wireless telegraphy — continues to exert a macabre fascination. This letter came by descent from John Rowland Hopwood, who acted as Ethel Clara Le Neve’s solicitor, with an estimate of £2,000-£3,000 ($2,550-$3,830) and took £2,800 ($3,570, or $4,460 with buyer’s premium).
