Pudukottai. A royal invitation to the Raja to a wedding at Westminster Abbey. 1922

A handsome invitation on 7¼ x 5 in card embossed with the Royal Arms in gilt inviting His Highness the Raja of Pudukota & the Rani Tondiman of Pudukota to the ceremony of the marriage  of Her Royal Highness, The Princess Mary with The Viscount Lascelles,  D.S.O. at Westminster Abbey on Tuesday 28th February 1922 at 11.30 o’clock a.m. The card is in very good condition for its age although there is a light crease across the lower right corner. Pudukota [now usually written as Pudukottai] was an eleven gun salute state in the Madras Presidency, now in Tamil Nadu. The ruling prince, H.H. Raja Martand Bhairava Tondiman Bahudar was born in 1875 and had succeeded in 1886. Princess Mary was the only daughter of King George V and was later kown as The Princess Royal, the Countess of Harewood. Viscount Lascelles [1882=1947] was  serving in the Grenadier Guards and was to succeed his father as the 6th Earl of Harewood in 1939. jul1/4