Month: October 2008

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Wedding Dress Miniature to be auctioned!

October 3, 2008

Elizabeth Emanuel, who gained notoriety for designing Princess Diana’s wedding dress, has announced that she will auction the pink chiffon blouse she loaned to Lady Diana Spencer for a Vogue Magazine photo shoot shortly before Diana became engaged to Prince Charles in 1980.

The chiffon blouse, designed by Emanuel, was worn by Lady Diana for a portrait taken by Lord Snowdon, and led Diana to purchase a black dress from the design shop, which she wore on her first official royal public engagement. Diana later requested that Emanuel and her former husband, David Emanuel design her wedding dress.

The distinctive pink blouse was loaned to Vogue Magazine after the publication called the Emanuels and asked if they had a blouse with a very high neck that they would be willing to lend to a “very famous personality.” The magazine did not reveal the wearer at that time, but the couple were thrilled to learn that it was Lady Diana who would appear in their creation.

Emanuel says that financial difficulties are the reason she’ll be auctioning off the blouse, along with a collection of about 200 other garments designed for celebrities, including dresses worn by actresses Elizabeth Hurley and Helena Bonham Carter. In addition, a 16-inch miniature version of Diana’s wedding dress made from the same material as the dress itself, will also be included in the auction. Emanuel had hoped to avoid auctioning the collection, but investments in a planned business venture did not materialise as she had hoped, and she says that her situation forces the auction.  weddingblog.au feature!

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Diana letters fetch 24K GBP at auction

Princess Diana letters reach £24K at auction

Oct 1 2008

FOUR handwritten letters sent by Princess Diana to her childhood nanny fetched £24,265 at auction yesterday.

The previously unseen letters sent to Mary Clarke, now 58, of Norfolk, sparked a bidding frenzy at Colchester and went for more than double the estimate.

See our previous post below for more details on the letters!

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DIANA RELIEVED WHEN SISTER DID NOT MARRY CHARLES LETTERS REVEAL 9/25/08

Diana was relieved when sister did not marry Charles: letters reveal
 

Princess Diana feared she looked like an elephant when she danced, and was relieved when her elder sister did not marry Prince Charles, letters set to be auctioned later this month show.

In the private letters to her nanny, which will be sold on September 30 by auctioneers Reeman Dansie, she also wrote of how, during her pregnancy with Prince William, she longed “for the day when I can eventually sit on the loo (rather than) looking over it!”

Born into an aristocratic family, Diana’s engagement to Prince Charles was announced in 1981, when she was 19, and the couple married that same year, going on to having two children — Princes William and Harry.

In July 1996, however, the couple divorced, and Diana was killed, along with her lover Dodi Fayed, in a Paris car crash in August 1997.

In a letter written in 1978 to Mary Clarke, her nanny, when she was 17, she wrote of how she was, along with her sister Jane and brother Charles, trying to “marry off (elder sister) Sarah to various men but have failed in every direction.”

“We even thought Prince Charles might have been in the running but were relieved when that passed.”

In the same letter, Diana lamented to Clarke that though she loved to sing and dance, “my voice sounds awful and watching me dance is like watching an elephant, so no one does!”

A separate letter written in January 1982, while pregnant with Prince William, Diana wrote of how “I am still feeling and being ill, well into my fourth month and am at total despair and long for the day when I can eventually sit on the loo as to looking over it!”

She continued: “I adore being married and having someone to devote my time, however, I do get annoyed at not being able to do my washing and general ironing.”
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PRINCESS DIANA’S BICYCLE TO BE AUCTIONED FROM HER COLHERNE COURT DAYS!

PRINCESS DIANA’S BIKE TO BE AUCTIONED!

 FROM THE BUCKINGHAMSHIRE ADVERTISER – UK

A bike previously owned by Princess Diana is to go under the hammer at Amersham Auction Rooms next month.  A letter from the vendor confirms the authenticity of the bike. It states: “I am pleased to confirm (and guarantee) that the bicycle delivered to Amersham Auction Rooms was bought by me from Lady Diana Spencer, at the time of her engagement to Charles Prince of Wales. The said Raleigh bicycle was considered inconsistent with her future status.

“At the time, Diana lived at Coleherne Court, around the corner from my house at One The Boltons, London SW10, where my son, also Charles, was a frequent visitor at Diana’s flat. The sale was leaked to the Evening Standard, although Diana had hoped that the sale should be concealed, for fear that unwelcome publicity might ensue. The death of Diana has, of course cancelled this moral obligation!

“The bike was stored in my house at 1 the Boltons unused.”

The following item was in the Evening Standard on August 28, 1981:

“The Princess of Wales has trained her friends admirably in the art of discretion. I am told that one procession that she thought she wouldn’t need in her new life was a bicycle.

“She was anxious, however, that it should not be sold for an enormous amount of money as Lady Diana’s Bicycle. So she went for a private sale through one of her flatmates, Charles Stonehill, a banker at Morgan Guaranty. But when I rang him, he was extremely discreet about the matter.”

The auction take place on November 6 at 10.30am.