Artist who took secret of royal legover to her grave

IT was a royal mistake that went unnoticed for 30 years.

• Alison Geissler had to use the outstretched leg of the Diana figure on the engraved decanter to cover up the mistake she made in the Prince of Wales' motto

Luckily all it had taken was to get Lady Di's leg over the Prince of Wales to avert disaster - a leg over his motto that is.

A glass decanter presented to Prince Charles on the day he married Lady Diana Spencer was the gift chosen by Edinburgh's Royal Company of Archers to honour the heir to the throne in 1981.

Engraved in the glass was the Prince of Wales' coat of arms bearing the famous motto "Ich dien" - "I serve".

Only now after the death of the highly-regarded engraver Alison Geissler MBE, has it emerged that the Prince's motto was accidentally misspelt.

The mistake - "Ich dein" instead of "dien" - changes the meaning to "I am thine". To cover it up, Ms Geissler bent the leg of an archer - thought to represent Diana - engraved on the decanter to hide the mistake for three decades. Across from her figure is that of Charles, sporting a polo helmet and mallet.

Ms Geissler, who was Edinburgh College of Art's oldest graduate, died last month at the age of 103 after a long and respected career.

Her son Paul Geissler, who is curator of the dentist museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, said the mistake was only noticed when he saw a picture of the decanter several years after it was given to Prince Charles.

He said: "I picked it up some time after it was given to Charles in 1981 and the penny dropped. I don't think anyone else picked it up, although it is a well-known motto and you can still make out the mistake.

"When I brought it up my mother avoided it but it was clear she had cleverly covered it up. To this day I believe it was only myself, my wife Elizabeth and my mother who knew.

"No-one must have noticed, because she went on to be commissioned to engrave for the Queen Mother and the King of Bhutan among many others."

Ms Geissler, who lived in her home in Newhaven until her death last month, also engraved for King Hussain of Jordan and Lopold de Rothschild, during her long and varied career.

In 1991 she was awarded the MBE for her contribution to glass engraving and she continued engraving until she was 94.

Mr Geissler said it was characteristic of the liveliness of her mind that she passed Higher French in her 80s.

She also travelled widely, visiting China, India, Egypt, Spain and Turkey, and also the US, Iran and France to visit her children and their families, recording some of her travels with delicate line drawings. Her last trip was to Cambridge only four months ago.

Her husband, William Hastie Geissler, an ECA lecturer, died in the 1960s, but she is survived by her children, Paul, Erik and Catherine, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Mr Geissler added: "My mother was extremely proud of her work on two levels. The finished product was beautiful, and that her work had become a gift to the royal family on such an important day.

"When you present royal gifts they disappear into this vast royal household and are never seen again. But we like to think its still used and is a bit of a running joke with the royals."