Princess Margaret´s ex-husband, Lord Snowdon, is to part with many mementoes from his life with the late royal. The items are among the contents of the couple’s former home, the Old House in the grounds of the Nyman Estate in Sussex.
The house itself was sold for over £1 million this summer, and Lord Snowdon says there is no room in his Kensington apartment for the lifetime’s collection of items it contained. Parting with them will be a wrench, however, he admits. “I won’t go anywhere near the auction. It would be far too sad.”
Articles up for sale include an oak table with the name of the couple’s son, Viscount Linley, carved on it, a croquet set, and several items of Georgian furniture. The 50-page colour catalogue that will accompany the sale also features four embroidered baby caps dating from the 18th century, which were part of his mother’s collection and have been in the family for generations.
The auction is expected to raise £200,000 and will be conducted by Sotheby’s.
Lord Snowdon, now 72 and in ailing health, spent much of his childhood in the house which was gifted to him by his uncle, Oliver Messel, two years before his marriage to Margaret. The newlyweds spent much time at Old House, and for the former Antony Armstrong-Jones it was also filled with happy memories from his youth.
“I have loved Old House for as long as a I can remember,” he says. “My sister and I used to walk through the woods to Old House which my grandmother…had remade out of three cottages entirely in Jacobean style. Tea was always laid out, along with cucumber sandwiches, but there was nothing like water, except from a well, no loo and certainly no heat.”
Photo: © Alphapress.com
