A Scottish National War Memorial book, dated 1932 and signed ‘Elizabeth’, is up for auction on 4 March at Peterborough auction house William George.
What’s significant about this is that the signature is believed to belong to Queen Elizabeth II as a young girl, and found within Elizabeth's signed book are two sketches in pencil, which are also up for sale in the same lot. One is a side profile of a middle-age woman and the other is of this same woman knitting. These two sketches are drawn on the official Royal Coat of Arms headed paper. There is speculation that, as these sketches were found in her book, they most likely would have been drawn by a member of the royal family close to Elizabeth at the time or perhaps even by the Queen herself.
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Who is depicted in the sketches is also a mystery but representatives at William George believe it could perhaps be a nanny looking after the future Queen at the time (Marion Crawford was a tutor for the then Princess Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret), or else of a family member. Knitting has long been in a family tradition within the royal family and especially loved by Queen Elizabeth II.
The estimate on the lot is £1,500-3,000 and the signed ‘Elizabeth’ is in blue ink.
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Art critic Philip Mould told the Mirror, “If these are by the Queen they show a precocious talent that, had she not become sovereign, could have taken her in artistic directions.
“The only person likely to establish authenticity for certain, however, is the artist herself.”
Although the date 1932 is stamped on the book, this would have made the Queen just six at the time and experts suggest the drawings could date from later.
