Jackie Kennedy letter and pictures in Irish auction

Another Jackie Kennedy letter has turned up in an Irish saleroom and will be auctioned later this month.

Mealy's Fine Art auctioneers said the typed letter, signed "Jacqueline Kennedy", was sent to an American diplomat in Paris in February 1966 thanking him for his help in arranging her visit to Switzerland the previous month.

The letter was sent with three photographs of Ms Kennedy and her two children and these are included in the sale.

In January 1966, Ms Kennedy, Caroline and John, travelled to the resort of Gstaad in the Swiss Alps for a ski holiday which attracted considerable media attention. It was three years after her husband President John F Kennedy was assassinated and she was gradually returning to public life.

Two photographs show the family just after they arrived on the slopes by helicopter from Geneva, dressed formally with Ms Kennedy wearing a fur coat and carrying a Chanel handbag, and John F Kennedy Jnr with a Swissair satchel. A third photograph shows Ms Kennedy and Caroline in ski-wear about to set off on a toboggan.

Photographs of the trip were in newspapers at the time but these particular images appear not to have been published before, say the auctioneers.

The short letter was sent to John Hanley at the American embassy in Paris to thank him for “all you did for my children and me to make our visit to Switzerland such a successful one”, and acknowledged his efforts and attention to detail which ensured that the trip “went so smoothly”. Ms Kennedy was known for her impeccable manners and attention to protocol.

The letter and photographs will go under the hammer on Wednesday, October 22nd, in the saleroom at Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny, as a single lot with a top estimate of €400.

Earlier this year, a separate collection of letters written by Ms Kennedy to her confidant, Dublin priest Fr Joseph Leonard of All Hallows College, and expected to sell for over €1 million at Sheppard’s Irish Auction House, was withdrawn from auction by the college and returned to the Kennedy family by the Vincentian Order.

Auctioneer George Gerard Mealy said “on this occasion there are no concerns regarding potential disputes from the [Kennedy] family akin to those encountered by All Hallows” as the Irish owner bought them “on the open market in the US years ago”.