Bidders set to spy out Christine Keeler letters

July 24, 2024 admin

A cache of very personal letters and photographs relating to Christine Keeler form part of Sworders’ annual Out of The Ordinary sale on July 30. The archive of memorabilia relating to a key protagonist in the Profumo Affair comes for sale from Keeler’s friend, the British art dealer James Birch. 

Lewis Morley photograph of Christine Keeler 1963, sitting astride Arne Jacobsen style chair (now in the V&A Museum). Signed at the bottom in blue ink by Christine Keeler, printed later, copyright sticker on reverse together with ‘Collection Christine Keeler’ stamp. 25.5 x 20 cm. Estimate £500-800

The Profumo affair has been described as ‘a story that has everything’. A married government minister caught with his pants down, a Soviet naval attaché and a 19-year-old topless showgirl, the revelations in the early 1960s irreparably damaged Macmillan’s government’s credibility and undermined the trust of the British public in its ruling class.

Stephen Ward, the osteopath and artist who was accused of pimping out Keeler and her friend Mary Rice-Davis, committed suicide before a verdict on his case could be made. 

A rare press photograph of Christine Keeler, 1961, French, with Keeler wearing a Michael Bronze showgirl costume for Murray's Cabaret Club — A rare press photograph of Christine Keeler, 1961, French, with Keeler wearing a Michael Bronze showgirl costume for Murray’s Cabaret Club, with lengthy details in French on the reverse regarding the Profumo Affair, 18 x 13cm. Estimate £150-200

The centrepiece of the collection is a series of nine letters written by Christine Keeler to her parents while serving a six-month sentence in Parkhurst Holloway Prison for perjury. Each letter, dating from December 8, 1963 to April 19, 1964, is on HM Prison note paper with her prison number 7904.

A collection of Christine Keeler letters home from prison, 8 December 1963 to 19 April 1964, a group of nine letters, written by Christine Keeler to her parents while she was interned in Parkhurst Holloway Prison for six months after her conviction for perjury, each letter is on HM prison notepaper with her prison number, 7904, together with three envelopes addressed to her parents. Estimate £6,000-9,000

“Don’t worry I’m fine” she says in her first missive. “In fact, it’s just like school, and there is a girl here I went to school with”.

Later in the correspondence she discusses her lifestyle and her future.

“Funny isn’t it I’ve always kept you from certain things in my life as I’ve thought you too precious and me too bad, but I suppose you have always known about everything”

“I am only young and I should start on a career of some sort seeing as my name is well known I might as well carry on with that and make lots of money ha! ha!”

The letters will be offered together as a single lot with a guide of £6,000-9,000.

A collection of Christine Keeler childhood photographs — Christine Keeler childhood photographs 1944 to 1950s, a poignant and personal group of nine childhood snapshots, early modelling and school photographs, including photographs with her parents, sister and schoolfriends, Christine ranging in age from 2 to 15, each stamped ‘Collection Christine Keeler’ on reverse. Estimate £500-800

The seller James Birch was a friend of Keeler’s for many years. A well-known art dealer who introduced some of Britain’s leading 20th-century artists to a global audience, he also curated the exhibition Christine Keeler: My Life in Pictures at The Mayor Gallery, London in 2010. 

Christine Keeler's passport and driving licence — Christine Keeler’s passport and driving licence, EV a provisional driving licence for ‘Miss Christine Keeler, 30
Linhope Street, NW1′, 1963, taken out the month before she was sent to prison, and
a British Visitors’ passport for ‘Christine Margaret Platt [née Keeler], 25 Dartley Tower, Worlds End Estate, SW10, 1st June 1983’. Estimate £500-800

Each of the photographs offered at Sworders carry the stamp reading ‘Collection Christine Keeler’. They include a copy of the famous 1963 photograph of Keeler sitting naked astride a modernist chair by photographer Lewis Morley that is signed in blue ink by Keeler, estimated at £500-800. The shoot, taken in May 1963 at the height of public interest in the Profumo scandal, took less than five minutes, with the last shot on a 12-exposure film becoming a Sixties icon.

More personal images include a group of nine childhood photographs taken between 1944 and the late 1950s, including snapshots of the model taken with her parents, sister and schoolfriends, estimated at £500-800, plus a series of photographs from the 1960s and later showing Keeler with her husband and son Anthony and Seymour Platt, estimated at £200-300.

Keeler’s provisional driving license taken out the month before she was sent to prison in December 1963 is offered together with her passport under the name of Christine Platt issued in 1984. It carries an estimate of £500-800.