Auction PR Publicity Announcements News and Information
Auction PR Publicity Announcements News and Information

Original Illustrations For Winnie-The-Pooh And Wind In The Willows to be Auctioned

E.H. Shepard is one of children’s literature’s most famous illustrators and Bonhams is delighted to present for sale a superb selection of his works on 4 November – direct from his family. The auction in New Bond Street will include an original drawing of Winnie-the-Pooh (£15,000-20,000) and a first sketch for Wind in the Willows (£7,000-10,000).

pooh-bear.jpgThe large oval pencil drawing of Pooh bear reaching his paw into a honey pot, while Tigger and Piglet sit around a kitchen table is an enlarged and expanded version of the illustration “Tiggers don’t like honey” used in The House at Pooh Corner.

The first sketch for Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows depicts the lovable animal friends Rat and Mole lounging with a picnic on the banks of the river. The caption in the published book is “Now pitch in, old fellow! And the Mole was indeed very glad to obey”.

Other Shepard illustrations to be sold by Bonhams include two pencil sketches for A.A. Milne’s famous poem Buckingham Palace, which appeared in When We Were Very Young, first published in 1924. One sketch shows Christopher Robin saluting a palace guard; the other depicts him holding hands with Alice.

The collection, which also encompasses sketches and studies for a number of cartoons from the political magazine Punch, will be sold on behalf of descendents of E.V. Knox and Mary Shepard, daughter of Ernest H. Shepard. E.V. Knox (1881-1971) had a long association with Punch, contributing articles from 1905 onwards and eventually becoming editor in 1932. In 1937, he married Mary Shepard, best known for her illustrations to P.L. Travers Mary Poppins.

For more information regarding Bonhams’ Sale of Printed Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Photographs featuring the E H Shepard Collection, please go to www.bonhams.com/books