The hidden love letters are signed 'Evol', which granddaughter Jill Corry later figured out was 'Love' backwards. Photo / Supplied
The hidden love letters are signed 'Evol', which granddaughter Jill Corry later figured out was 'Love' backwards. Photo / Supplied
A secret romance hidden in plain sight in a family home for generations has been unearthed by a granddaughter after more than 80 years.
For the duration of Ellen Gamble's 60-year happy marriage, a series of postcards of glamorous women hung in a wooden frame ornately carved by her ownhand.
The stylish postcards, painted by acclaimed artist Angelo Asti, show six beautiful bare-shouldered women posing elegantly and sometimes seductively.
But it was only a decade after her own mother Monica Corry's death, when granddaughter Jill Corry took the beloved heirloom to get remounted, that a mysterious chapter of family history was revealed.
Tucked behind the portraits were six Tuck's postcards addressed to her then unmarried grandmother: Miss N. Fitzjohn of Dannevirke.
They speak of twilight rendezvous and yearning to meet, always signed off, Evol.
"Just to let you know, I will come up tonight if you like. Give me the usual, Evol," one says.
Corry, 75, was confounded by the clandestine correspondence, especially given that her grandmother never spoke of any old flames, and enjoyed a long, contented marriage.
But the postcards always graced the walls of their family home.
An Auckland woman who took her late grandmother's beloved framed postcards to get re-mounted was shocked to discover old love letters from a mystery man hidden inside. Photo / Supplied
And today Corry firmly believes that they are old love letters that her grandmother must've treasured and always wanted to be reminded of.
"I would say they were cherished because of the meticulous carving of the frame they were in and the way they had been kept all her married life, hung in the family home," says Corry who lives in Orewa.
"Whether my grandfather knew about them or not, I have no idea. This is the only proof that I know of that she ever had any other person interested. She was a very private person and never wanted to talk about her family or her upbringing. It was that period of time where they didn't talk about things like that."
For years, Corry wondered who the mysterious 'Evol' could have been.
Then late one night while lying in bed, she had a "lightbulb moment".
"I suddenly realised that the signature was love spelt backwards. That was a big revelation for me and I knew then that [the postcards] must have meant an awful lot to her," she said.
The set of six framed postcards, complete with the secret love letters, are now being offered for sale at Cordy's Auctioneers in Remuera.
When auctioneer Andrew Grigg first saw the framed set of "Asti beauties", he thought they would prove popular for collectors.
But when he heard the back story, he was entranced.
"I was amazed that Jill's grandmother had kept this secret from her family for all those years," Grigg said.
"It must be a love that was never allowed to blossom or maybe she just liked the images. A skeleton in the closet maybe? Intriguing. I can see where Agatha Christie got her plots – there's nothing as good as real life."
The postcards go under the hammer at Cordy's on January 21, with an estimate of $200-$400.
