Overall: 16cm (4.2in) x 10.7cm (6.2in)
Three quarter length postcard portrait of Queen Mary. Signed in ink on the image in the Queen’s hand ‘Mary R / 1933’, and autograph inscribed to the reverse ‘With best wishes + / most grateful thanks for / the beautiful jade ornament / you have so kindly sent me -’. Image size 13.5cm (5.3in) x 9cm (3.5in). Contained in an easel backed gilt tooled Morocco frame by Asprey.
Queen Mary was well known for her interest in works of art and swelled The Royal Collection’s holdings with over 2,000 additions, including a significant collection of Chinese jade and hardstones. Moreover she was well known for acquiring peices from private collections by means of a pointed comment when an object caught her expert eye. She appears beside some of her jade in a photograph of 1924 by Emil Otto Hoppé (later reproduced in the Illustrated London News), her hand on a glowing vitrine, gazing down at its contents.