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JOHN BISSET / STUFF / Stuff
Anita Ramsay holds up a framed page from The Grosvenor guest book signed by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1954.
A framed guest registration page, signed by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip during their royal visit to Timaru in 1954, has hung on a wall in the Low family home for decades.
But now the family is looking to relocate the piece.
Machelle Holden said her late father, Doug Low, had worked at The Grosvenor some twenty years after the Queen and Prince Phillip toured New Zealand and stopped in Timaru on January 25.
Crowds of people gathered in Ashbury Park to salute royalty, followed by servicemen paying tribute in a parade along Stafford St.
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The monarch had a civic lunch at The Grosvenor hotel and then rested in one of the rooms for the afternoon, said The Grosvenor general manager Charlotte Herd.
Herd said he hadn’t found the guestbook for that period. Apparently Low had ripped out the page and in doing so created some kind of family heirloom.
Holden said he always remembered the queen’s signature hanging in the hall and would love to ask her about it now. Low died in June of this year after a prolonged illness.
She feels that the item does not belong to her or her older sister, Anita Ramsay, so it can be sold.
John Bisset / Stuff
The sheet of paper is believed to have the signatures of Queen Elizabeth and Philip from a guest book at the Grosvenor Hotel.
It’s difficult to estimate how much it could be worth, as the prices of items with the queen’s original signature listed on EBay range from hundreds to thousands of dollars.
Timaru historian David Jack said it was a shame that the signature page was not yet part of the guestbook for context, as the act of removing it had devalued it.
“Theoretically it belongs to The Grosvenor … It’s better in a museum.”
Jack said that items signed by famous people generally increase in value. He used the example of a book signed by Bob Fitzsimmons that he bought a decade ago for $ 200 and sold for $ 2,500 last year.
Tony Rippin, curator of documentary history at the South Canterbury Museum, said the original page would be a rather unique item.
“We cannot value it in monetary terms, as it is something we do not do. How the item is cared for or preserved is really up to the owner, but it appears that she is taking care of it. “
He said that museum staff were always happy to advise or discuss good practice in caring for the family taonga (treasure).
When Holden sorted out his late father’s possessions, he also came across a signed photo of Timaru boxer Bob Fitzsimmons and thought it might be original as well, but after talking to museum staff, he found they had the exact same one.
