A outstanding assortment of royal memos, playing cards and images is ready to promote for £8,000 when it goes below the hammer at Hansons Auctioneers however may fetch way more. A part of the gathering features a hilarious be aware written by the late Queen explaining that her corgi puppies ate a royal {photograph}.

The memo was written to Alan Maxwell, the royals’ official pictures knowledgeable who would develop their digicam movies and provide his recommendation. The handwritten be aware is amongst a treasure trove of images, letters and thanks notes the royals wrote to Mr Maxwell over his years of service.

The royal assortment was found in a cardboard field 15 years after Mr Maxwell’s loss of life and is now going below the hammer. The haul consists of greater than 60 Christmas playing cards and New Yr playing cards despatched out by the royals between the Nineteen Seventies and Nineties.

Mr Maxwell was a photographic and digicam specialist at London’s Wallace H Eaton Ltd, official suppliers to the royal household. The Royal Household relied on Mr Maxwell for all their pictures wants, together with serving to them select the annual royal Christmas playing cards.

Writing a memorandum be aware to Mr Maxwell earlier than one Christmas the late Queen Elizabeth informed him: “Please verify the print with the negatives to seek out out which is lacking – eaten by the puppies – ER.”

One other be aware written by King Charles when he was Prince of Wales in 1993, revealed how he felt concerning the “unpromising materials” for that 12 months’s playing cards. One of many units featured him posing in a kilt subsequent to Prince William and Harry whereas the others confirmed Diana posing along with her sons. A 3rd featured the Queen and Prince Philip.

Within the be aware, he wrote: “Pricey Mr Maxwell, I simply wished to thanks a lot for on a regular basis and energy you set into producing doable Christmas playing cards for me this 12 months. I could not be extra happy with what you may have achieved from some fairly unpromising materials!

“I believed you probably did wonders in decoding my concepts of getting a card made up of three small photos, and solely narrowly most well-liked the group model in the long run. I solely hope it’s appreciated by a number of thousand recipients.

“I’m sorry that my ridiculously congested programme meant that you just had a fruitless journey to London, and that I didn’t have a possibility to congratulate you in individual, however did need you to know the way grateful I’m for all you may have completed on this and different tasks. What on Earth would I do with out you?! Yours sincerely, Charles.”

One other letter being offered is one written by Diana in 1992 by which she thanked Mr Maxwell for “coming to our rescue”. She wrote: “Pricey Mr Maxwell, A really particular thanks for coming to our rescue at such quick discover! I did admire enormously the velocity by which the images arrived right here & am solely sorry for the difficulty we should have brought about! Yours most sincerely, Diana.”

Different Diana memorabilia consists of a number of skilled pictures of her taken within the Eighties and 90s together with her twenty first birthday portrait by Snowden. One other image within the public sale is a 1984 Christmas card, inscribed ‘Mr Maxwell, from, Diana and Charles’, incorporates a picture of the couple with a small Prince William and child Prince Harry.

A touching 1988 Christmas card, despatched by Queen Elizabeth and The Duke of Edinburgh, incorporates a picture of Elizabeth holding an toddler Princess Beatrice of York on her lap with The Queen Mom standing by her facet.

Probably the most helpful lot, which is predicted to fetch between £500 and £700, is a typed and signed letter from Queen Elizabeth to Mr Maxwell. Written on Buckingham Palace paper, the be aware thanks him for his good needs on the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh’s golden marriage ceremony anniversary plus 13 picture memorandums to Mr Maxwell signed with the initials ‘ER’.

The be aware says: “Many thanks for getting a repeat for the image of Harold Wilson and me – he is had them in his pockets for years! Virtually rubbed it away. I’m supplying you with a big and tough order for copies of images I took of my Jersey cows that gained prizes just lately; with the assistance of a New Zealand farmer and his spouse, and so they need the pictures for souvenirs! There isn’t any instant hurry as they’ve gone again to NZ. ER.”

Mr Maxwell died in 2009 and now his assortment is being offered, with most of the notes and letters seen for the primary time. Auctioneer Charles Hanson, proprietor of Hansons Auctioneers, mentioned: “Members of the royal household at all times known as him Mr Maxwell, not Alan.

“He was a person of absolute discretion, therefore incomes their respect. He printed Christmas playing cards and trimmed and framed them. He was an absolute perfectionist. Mr Maxwell, a Yorkshireman, handed away 15 years in the past and now his assortment has lastly come to gentle.

“It’s vital when it comes to royal historical past but in addition permits us to pay tribute to a person held in excessive esteem by royalty. Within the digital age it’s straightforward to neglect that every one pictures was once despatched off to be developed and printed. The royal household, among the many most photographed individuals on this planet, got here to depend on Mr Maxwell for his or her photographic wants and he was proud to serve them.”