Two photograph albums showing the royal family's private Christmas pantomimes will go under the hammer at auction later this month, featuring Princess Margaret and Her Majesty the Queen in 1943 and 1944, before her coronation.

Each album will be sold as a separate lot in the specialist Books & Ephemera sale on Tuesday, June 14 and carry a pre-auction estimate of £1,500-£2,000.

Robert Henshilwood, book specialist at TW Gaze, said: “These are two extraordinary documents, in terms of their content, their provenance and their condition.

“They give literal snapshots, rare insights, into the world of our royal family’s private life; scenes only accessible to a privileged few 80 years ago. We are delighted to be marketing such treasures, and the timing of their arrival into the public domain could not be better.

“Each is a scarce and important photograph album: the images are stored at Windsor Castle archives, and original images are very seldom seen anywhere else."

Several of the photographs have ink stamps from Studio Lisa, the husband-and-wife team of Lisa and Jimmy Sheridan, who were granted two Royal Warrants and took some of the most informal and intimate photographs of the royal family between the 1930s and 1960s.

The Royal Christmas pantomimes at Windsor Castle were charitable productions, raising money for the Royal Household Wool Fund which supplied knitting wool to make comforters for fighting soldiers.

They were performed for close relations of the Royal Family and select friends including the artist and illustrator, Sylvia Salisbury, from whose estate the two albums came.

See twgaze.co.uk for the illustrated catalogue as well as further information and bidding instructions.