Portrait of the Queen Mother to go under the hammer

London, May 24 : A 1936 portrait of late Queen Mother along with her daughters Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret is set be auctioned in Edinburgh on May 29.

The portrait, estimated to cost 50,000 pounds, also has a hand-written letter by the Queen to artist Charles Edmund Brock before being painted.

The letter said: "I do not like to mention prices etc. but I would like to pay for it and if you would paint us all it would be a delicious picture I know."

Brock had painted eight versions, out of which six were destroyed.

Among the remaining two, one was taken by King George VI and is in Buckingham Palace and the other one was kept by the artist, whose family is now selling it.

"From correspondence we know that the princesses remembered their visits to the studio," the Telegraph quoted Nick Curnow, managing director and head of paintings at auction house Lyon and Turnbull, as saying.

"They describe how they had to pass messages to the artist in sign language as he was rather hard of hearing," he added.

The owners are selling the painting because they feel that they can no longer look after it.

ANI