Photo-portrait of the future Queen Elizabeth II and her younger sister, Princess Margaret, on a Christmas card sold at Halls for £1350.
It appeared on a Christmas card of 1946 that sold to an online buyer for £1350 at Halls (22/12% buyer’s premium) of Shrewsbury on March 9 against an estimate of £400-600.
The card has gilt E and M initials, each surmounted by a crown, on the cover. It is signed twice by the two princesses, below the photograph and below the Christmas wishes.
The photograph was taken by Dorothy Wilding on May 27, 1946. Wilding (1893- 1976) was the first woman to be made royal photographer, working at the 1937 coronation of King George VI.
She was later granted the first official photographic sitting of the new sovereign when Elizabeth II came to the throne. It took place on February 26 1952, just 20 days after the accession, to create portraits to use as the basis for her image on new coins, banknotes and stamps (Wilding had previously photographed George VI for use on currency and stamps).
Wilding is also renowned for her 1923 Jazz Age portrait Frieze, of The Midnight Follies performers in the cabaret at the London Metropole hotel. She had a studio in London by the age of 21 and opened another in New York. An exhibition of her work with 130 photographs is taking place in Gloucester, her home town, until May 23.
