The girls were Minnie, Ella, and Emmie Drury, and it was the start of a friendship that would last the writer the rest of his life.

Items being offered at Christie's in London on November 29 include a photograph Carroll took of one of the girls, Ella, sitting cross-legged on a chair during one of two photographic sessions in September 1869 and July 1870. The photo, together with one of her mother, should fetch up to £5000.

Also being sold are eight letters he wrote to Minnie when she was married with children. They could fetch up to £10,000.

An inscribed first edition copy of The Hunting of the Snark, which Carroll gave to the sisters as an Easter present in 1876, is set to make up to £8000, and a signed first edition of the 1865 classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which he dedicated to "three puzzled little girls" after their first meeting, could realise £5000.