Yahoo News Princess Diana praises 'generous' Americans in letters set for auction
Two months before her death in 1997, Princess Diana auctioned a selection of her dresses to benefit the Royal Marsden Hospital Cancer Fund and the AIDS Crisis Trust, briefly detailing the preparations in a series of letters to her friends.
Naturally, the dress sale (which took place in New York on June 25, 1997) was a success, bringing in over $2 million, according to The New York Times. And now, Diana’s handwritten letters leading up to and following the event are being auctioned off, too.
Swann Auction Galleries has listed a series of letters from Diana that are expected to bring in $20,000 when they are auctioned off later this week.
A group of the letters were written to her friend, then-Harper’s Bazaar editor, Liz Tilberis, and detailed the Christie’s dress auction, ‘Dresses from the Collection of Diana, Princess of Wales.’
“It was stunning the amount made by the auction last week,” Diana wrote to Tilberis on July 1, 1997 - her 36th birthday. “How typical of the Americans to be so totally generous. I can always rely on them!”
In an earlier letter to Tilberis, dated February 25, 1997, Diana wrote, “[A] lovely idea of Veronica’s to host a preview reception in June for the sale of my dresses. The news of the auction came out far too early & it’s due to be announced next week from Christies,” she explained.
“It’s been quite an event sorting out the frocks - memories flooding back & some excellent ones too,” Diana shared of the dresses she selected, which included the velvet Victor Edelstein gown she wore when she danced with actor John Travolta at the White House in 1985.
The idea for the charitable auction reportedly came from a then 14-year-old Prince William, and in her letters, Diana expressed surprise and gratitude for the amount of money her dresses raised.
Other letters available for bidding include an earlier letter to Tilberis about her Vogue cover in 1991, a signed menu for a British Deaf Association benefit dinner in 1990 and a Christmas card picturing Princes William and Harry with their cousins, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, in 1996.
