Wonderful hand-drawn and -colored Christmas card from a young Queen Elizabeth II that she sent to her governess Marion Crawford in the 1930s. The inside of the card, which measures 10 x 4 open, is signed and inscribed in black ink, “To Crawfie, From Lilibet.” The adjacent page features a drawing of a golden horseshoe wrapped with holly, and the front of the card bears a Christmas tree design pattern that the princess has traced and colored with crayons. In fine condition, with scattered light foxing, and two light old tape stains to the top edge of the signed panel.
Elizabeth was given the nickname “Lilibet” as a young child, and it was essentially only her immediate family members who were permitted to use it. The exception to the rule, of course, was if you were Marion Crawford, the Scottish-born childhood tutor of Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, whom they affectionately called ‘Crawfie.’
Crawford served in the royal household from 1932 to 1947 but purportedly fell out of favor with the family after the release of her 1950 book The Little Princesses: The Story of the Queen's Childhood by Her Nanny, Marion Crawford. The memoirs tell the story of a 22-year-old teacher who was recruited to look after the young daughters of the Duke and Duchess of York and who would spend the next 16 years as the children’s governess and a trusted employee. Crawford’s memoir offers a unique insider’s perspective of Elizabeth and Margaret’s childhood and adolescence, which, according to the royal family, was an unforgivable offense. Initially honored as a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order for her loyal service to the crown, Crawford was later demonized by the press and ostracized by the royal family for the rest of her life as a result of The Little Princesses’ publication.
It’s said that Crawford was never forgiven for her book and, for generations, 'doing a Crawfie' became royal shorthand for an indiscretion or peddling ‘tittle-tattle.’ After she died in 1988, it was reported that Crawford had bequeathed to the Queen her collection of mementos from those years of royal duty — she had always refused to sell them. The items that she didn’t send to the Queen she sent to the family of her lawyer, George Smith, whose wife and three children visited her regularly after Crawford moved into a nursing home. Among the fragments was a box containing several hand-made Christmas cards lovingly inscribed from Elizabeth and Margaret to the tutor they adored, and who knew them best — this being one of those cards.
Provenance: Spink & Son Auctions, London: October 2023.
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