A large (6¾ x 4½) vintage page from an autograph album with a hand-drawn self-caricature, signed in person by Joyce Grenfell, the English actress, singer and writer. She was known for her songs and monologues, and for her roles, mostly comic, in many films, including Miss Gossage in The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950) and Police Sergeant Ruby Gates in the St Trinian's series (from 1954). Other film credits include  Genevieve, The Million Pound Note, The Yellow Rolls Royce and Happy Is The Bride.

Born in Montpelier Square, Knightsbridge, London, Joyce Grenfell was the daughter of an American socialite and an architect. Nancy Astor (the American-born British politician who was the first woman Member of Parliament) was her aunt, and Joyce often visited her at Cliveden, the Astors’ home, and lived in a cottage on the estate, a mile from the main house, in the early years of her marriage. After attending finishing school in Paris at the age of 17, she enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, but found it less glamorous than she had imagined and left after a single term. She had abandoned the dream of becoming an actress, but when she was invited to perform a comic monologue in a West End revue in 1939, it's success led to a career as an entertainer, performing her creations in theatres on five continents between 1940 and 1969.