New Lady Di auction: unseen photos and letters from the time before she was Princess of Wales

The fascination with Diana, Princess of Wales, and her legacy endures nearly 29 years after her death. From time to time her story is rewritten in the present tense. Not only because new information comes to light—or because past material is rediscovered—but also because tangible memories have become prized possessions for their owners and objects of desire for her fans. From her iconic dresses to personal letters, they are small fragments of a life that continues to attract interest.

On July 7, the British auction house Gorringe’s will sell a collection related to the Princess of Wales and her teenage years. The items in this new lot, which offer a unique view of Diana Spencer before she became Princess of Wales by marrying Prince Charles, were in the possession of Katherine Hanbury, a childhood friend of Lady Di who attended West Heath Girls’ School in London with her between 1973 and 1977. “It represents a genuine personal archive of a real friendship with someone who knew Diana before her public life. Through these objects you can see the princess in the years before she became one of the most famous people in the world: as an innocent, proud, thoughtful and deeply sincere young woman,” the auction house says.

The collection includes four previously unseen color photographs from Diana’s school years: two of her alone in her bedroom, one outside the school and the last with her group of friends, a scene showing them relaxing in the sun by the school. At that stage the future princess was not especially notable for her academic achievement. She left West Heath Girls’ School at 16 in 1977, the same year she met her future husband. They would not begin their relationship until 1980; a year later, on July 29, 1981, they were married.

One of the items up for sale dates from two months after that mass wedding at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Lady Di wrote a letter to Hanbury after returning from her honeymoon, which ended with a stay at Balmoral Castle following a two-week trip aboard the royal yacht Britannia. The missive is dated September 27, 1981: “Dear Katherine, I can’t tell you what a lovely surprise I got opening your card. Thank you so much for putting pen to paper and wishing me well.” It is three handwritten pages on Buckingham Palace stationery, bearing Queen Elizabeth II’s royal seal. The pages are inside an original envelope that is also part of the lot.

The owner of these mementos has also included in the sale a handwritten birthday card signed Diana (S). It appears this was how she and another Diana in her class were distinguished. “She remembers Diana volunteering to clean the house of the headmistress, and it is memories like this, and the collection that has come to light, that present the real young Diana in a way that is completely at odds with the public persona that was created by others,” explains Albert Radford, books and manuscripts specialist at Gorringe’s, in statements to People magazine.

The final item completing this collection is the program for an intimate Thanksgiving service held at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London on November 19, 1997, in memory of the late Diana, Princess of Wales. The princess died in a tragic car crash in Paris at the age of 36 on August 31, 1997. This service was entirely separate from the state funeral held on September 6 at Westminster Abbey and broadcast worldwide. Only those closest to her attended this last farewell, making this program a unique keepsake that few possess.

The auction house estimates the sale price for the whole collection will range from $4,600 to $6,937. The aim was to time the auction to coincide with what would have been the 45th anniversary of the royal wedding of Charles III and Diana on July 29. In addition, on July 1 the Princess of Wales would have turned 65.

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