Eppli sells letter from Queen Elizabeth II to private collector and announces another special document for April 2024

A few weeks ago, on October 28, 2023, the auction house Eppli offered a handwritten letter from Queen Elizabeth II as part of its Best Of auction. In the course of the auction, several interested parties became aware of the rare document - a private collector and long-standing customer bought the letter.

In this special letter dated August 5, 1964, Queen Elizabeth II writes touching words about her son Edward, now Duke of Edinburgh, to her midwife Helen "Rowie" Rowe. Around five months earlier, on March 10, 1964, she had given birth to her fourth child. Helen Rowe delivered all four of the Queen's children and became her confidante and friend. The monarch, otherwise famous for her discipline and poise, shows a very gentle side as a loving and proud mother in her lines to Helen Rowe.

At the auction of the letter on October 28 in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, it was ultimately not sold. Although the auction experts do not experience this situation often, it is not unusual. "It does happen that an interesting auction lot doesn't sell straight away at an auction," explains René Waldrab, head of the Leinfelden-Echterdingen auction hall and auctioneer at Eppli. "Various reasons play a role here. For example, it may be that a potential buyer has simply missed the auction date. simply misses the auction date. For me, it's not surprising that the sale worked out quickly."

After the auction, Eppli received a number of inquiries from collectors about the Queen's letter. "We are delighted to have sold this special piece of writing to a long-standing customer," says Waldrab. It has been agreed not to disclose the name of the buyer or the purchase price. However, René Waldrab can reveal one thing: "The letter comes from a private collection of a consignor from England and will be returned to collectors."

Eppli can already announce a highlight for the coming year: "We are expecting another, comparable consignment from the same source for our Best Of auction on April 27, 2024," says Waldrab. The source, the collector from England, approached Eppli last autumn with the letter that has now been sold, after a handwritten letter from the then recently deceased Queen was successfully auctioned by Germany's largest auction house in November 2022. Germany's largest auction house was successfully auctioned off. The Queen had written the letter in 1966 to Etti Plesch, née Maria Countess von Wurmbrand-Stuppach (1914-2003). The letter was auctioned for 8,300 euros.

Specialist contacts

Contact Press