Lot 174
KEELER (CHRISTINE) Archive of letters, photographs and other material relating to the childhood and career of Christine Keeler (1942-2017), the majority from her own collection
23 March 2022, 14:30 GMT
London, Knightsbridge£15,000 - £25,000
Looking for a similar item?
Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
KEELER (CHRISTINE)
Archive of letters, photographs and other material relating to the childhood and career of Christine Keeler (1942-2017), the majority from her own collection, comprising:
i) Collection of documents, including nine autograph letters from Christine Keeler signed ("Christine", "Chris") written to her parents from Holloway Prison ("...This place isn't half as bad as I expected... Don't worry I'm fine... its just like being back at school, and there is a girl here I went to school with..."), much concerning visits and their health, care of the animals ("...I look after the birds here... and the goldfish... I forgot to feed him tonight... I keep forgetting I can't get out ha, ha!..."), looking forward getting back to normal life and making plans for the future ("...seeing my name is well known I might just as well carry on with it and make us lots of money...") and mentioning Mandy Rice Davies ("...Terrible about Mandy being thrown out of Turkey... she has been playing about terrible and showing off and she also has made a flop of her singing career..."); with three envelopes, 29 pages, on lined Holloway Prison headed notepaper, 8vo (192 x 116mm.), 8 December [19]63 to 22 September [19]64; with other ephemera including drinks menu from Murray's Club (where she worked as a topless showgirl), the catalogue of Stephen Ward's art exhibition, Museum Street Galleries, August 1963, shorthand and typed trial transcripts of the Ward trial, three court passes to the Keeler and Ward trials, copy of the Denning Report, September 1963, etc.
ii) Christine Keeler's personal collection of childhood and family photographs from age 2 to 15, depicting family outings and portraits, some annotated on reverse; with group of press photographs from the period of the Profumo Affair, including Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies in a car, Keeler leaving Ward's flat and a modern print of the infamous Lewis Morley image, signed "Christine Keeler" in blue biro beneath the image; contact sheets for shoot with her children by Born Benkow (1969), and a further collection of later publicity photographs and personal photographs of family and friends, etc., c.33 photographs plus contact sheets, 'Collection Christine Keeler' stamp on reverse, various sizes, c.1944 onwards
iii) Fifty framed photographs, including 'glamour' photographs by Edgar Brind; photo shoot with Ray Bellistario immediately after her imprisonment ("1st day out of prison, lying in a field", "1st day out of prison, eating chicken", etc.), June 1964, with further portraits by Edgar Brind (1965), the Blackstar Agency (1964) and others, largest framed size 450 x 390mm. and smaller, stamp 'Collection Christine Keeler' on reverse, 1963 and later
iv) Various miscellaneous material, including a bill from Stephen Ward's osteopath practice dated 1954, screenplays of the film Scandal, large quantity of newspapers and magazines 1963 onwards, exhibition catalogues, posters, records and tapes, c.30 books by and about Christine Keeler, and much else (quantity)
i) Collection of documents, including nine autograph letters from Christine Keeler signed ("Christine", "Chris") written to her parents from Holloway Prison ("...This place isn't half as bad as I expected... Don't worry I'm fine... its just like being back at school, and there is a girl here I went to school with..."), much concerning visits and their health, care of the animals ("...I look after the birds here... and the goldfish... I forgot to feed him tonight... I keep forgetting I can't get out ha, ha!..."), looking forward getting back to normal life and making plans for the future ("...seeing my name is well known I might just as well carry on with it and make us lots of money...") and mentioning Mandy Rice Davies ("...Terrible about Mandy being thrown out of Turkey... she has been playing about terrible and showing off and she also has made a flop of her singing career..."); with three envelopes, 29 pages, on lined Holloway Prison headed notepaper, 8vo (192 x 116mm.), 8 December [19]63 to 22 September [19]64; with other ephemera including drinks menu from Murray's Club (where she worked as a topless showgirl), the catalogue of Stephen Ward's art exhibition, Museum Street Galleries, August 1963, shorthand and typed trial transcripts of the Ward trial, three court passes to the Keeler and Ward trials, copy of the Denning Report, September 1963, etc.
ii) Christine Keeler's personal collection of childhood and family photographs from age 2 to 15, depicting family outings and portraits, some annotated on reverse; with group of press photographs from the period of the Profumo Affair, including Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies in a car, Keeler leaving Ward's flat and a modern print of the infamous Lewis Morley image, signed "Christine Keeler" in blue biro beneath the image; contact sheets for shoot with her children by Born Benkow (1969), and a further collection of later publicity photographs and personal photographs of family and friends, etc., c.33 photographs plus contact sheets, 'Collection Christine Keeler' stamp on reverse, various sizes, c.1944 onwards
iii) Fifty framed photographs, including 'glamour' photographs by Edgar Brind; photo shoot with Ray Bellistario immediately after her imprisonment ("1st day out of prison, lying in a field", "1st day out of prison, eating chicken", etc.), June 1964, with further portraits by Edgar Brind (1965), the Blackstar Agency (1964) and others, largest framed size 450 x 390mm. and smaller, stamp 'Collection Christine Keeler' on reverse, 1963 and later
iv) Various miscellaneous material, including a bill from Stephen Ward's osteopath practice dated 1954, screenplays of the film Scandal, large quantity of newspapers and magazines 1963 onwards, exhibition catalogues, posters, records and tapes, c.30 books by and about Christine Keeler, and much else (quantity)
Footnotes
'THERE IS NOTHING TO FIGHT BUT EVERYTHING TO FORGET': THE REMAINING PAPERS FROM THE COLLECTION OF CHRISTINE KEELER, THE WOMAN AT THE HEART OF THE PROFUMO SCANDAL.
One of the great scandals of the twentieth-century, the Profumo Case of the early 1960's revealed a complicated web of intrigue and deception at the highest levels of government. At the heart of it all, the nineteen-year-old model and dancer Christine Keeler, who had sexual affairs with senior politician John Profumo (which he famously denied) and a Russian agent. Profumo was forced to resign and the Conservative government fell. Her friend, the osteopath to royalty and nobility, Stephen Ward, was accused of pimping, resulting in his subsequent suicide and Keeler's imprisonment for perjury.
The present archive includes photographs from every stage of her life, from childhood to adolescence, her early career as a glamour model and dancer in London nightclubs, to the frenzy of the scandal when she appeared on every front page and attempting to rebuild her career and family after prison. Perhaps the most poignant are the letters to her parents, written in an unsophisticated hand, from her 9-month stay in Holloway. They reveal a young, rather naïve figure (Profumo described her as 'completely uneducated'), seemingly unworried by the prison experience and mostly concerned with her family and her cats, a reality far removed from her notorious public image. Also included in the archive is a signed modern print of Lewis Morley's photograph of Christine Keeler, taken in May 1963, which remains one of the most iconic images of the 1960's.
Provenance: The majority of this archive was acquired directly from Christine Keeler by art dealer James Birch who has also added to the collection.
Additional information
Bid now on these items
![APPLE COMPUTER, INC. THINK DIFFERENT: MAHATMA GANDHI. Printed vinyl banner with metal rail, 1562 x 692 mm, [Cupertino, c.1997/1998], the recto featuring an image of Mahatma Gandhi, the verso featuring "Apple" in white letters against a red ground.](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg2.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2021-10%252F12%252F25060726-8-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)