Photographs, Autographs & Documents,
British Royal Memorabilia (PHOTO23a)
17th May, 2023

Lot 296 *Estimate: £3000 - £5000 + Fees
Diana (1961-1997). Princess of Wales, 1981-1996. A pairof signed adult humour greetings cards
Diana (1961-1997). Princess of Wales, 1981-1996. A pair ofsigned adult humour greetings cards published in theGirlsTalk series by Emotional Rescue Ltd., c. 1987, folded
card with printed colour cartoon on front with punchline
printed message inside, the first with artwork after Mike
Edwards and the message/punchline, 'Adam came first... / ...
Men always do!...', the second card with 'What's thedefinition of the Perfect Man? / A midget with a 10" tongue
who can breathe through his ears!", both with signed
presentation inscriptions from Diana in black ink, 'Dearest
Tino, fondest love as always, from Diana' and 'Dearest Tino,lots of love from Diana', the second card with the additional
message in Diana's hand on facing blank page, 'I couldn't
decide which card to send & then thought you'd enjoy both!',each 17.5 x 12.5 cm, both in very fine condition
Qty: 2Footnote:
The recipient of these risqué cards was Constantine II (19402023), the last king of Greece, reigning from 1964 until theabolition of the Greek monarchy on 1 June 1973. He was firstcousin once removed from Prince Philip, both being
descended from King George I of Greece. After the abolitionof the Greek monarchy Constantine and his family moved toLondon where they lived for several decades and were goodfriends with the royal family. Prince Philip and Princess Diana
were godparents to Prince Philippos of Greece and Denmark(born 1986), the youngest son of Constantine II and AnneMarie of Denmark. King Constantine was himself godfather toWilliam, Prince of Wales (born 1982).
The reason for sending these cards, other than as a bit offun, is unclear as the cards do not celebrate a birthday,
Christmas or christening. Diana must have seen these cards
and thought of Tino before buying and sending them,possibly inspired by a conversation they had had at somesocial gathering.
This genre of ever popular adult humour greetings cards
continues to this day and has a long history going back to thevery popular saucy seaside postcards of the early twentiethcentury. The cards became increasingly bawdy through thedecades until a new 1950s Conservative government of
Winston Churchill introduced a crackdown on this type of racy
postcard design. Postcards deemed inappropriate wereseized from traders and destroyed and this in turn led to theformation of censorship boards around the country as a wayof preventing the sale of excessively rude cards. The
censorship boards weakened through the 1960s and were
eventually disbanded. Many of these cards by artists such as
Donald McGill are highly collectable and speak to the humourof a bygone age. For all the rudeness on display there is anequal amount of innocent, cheeky humour that appeals to theBritish public, and clearly appealed to the People's Princess.
Even George Orwell wrote an article for Horizon in 1941,
called 'The Art of Donald McGill' in which he acknowledges
the vulgarity of the postcards which was 'the only medium inwhich really "low" humour is considered to be printable' but he
did not wish to see these postcards disappear. For Orwell
they spoke to a baseness in us all as humans, 'On the whole,human beings want to be good, but not too good, and notquite all the time'.