AUCTION Sales round up

The location of the first ‘poohsticks’

sold for £131,625

SUMMERS PLACE AUCTIONS, BILLINGSHURST The original wooden bridge that provided the inspiration for Winnie the Pooh author AA Milne, sold for £131,625 against an estimated price of £60,000.

Poohsticks Bridge, located in Ashdown Forest, East Sussex, was first built in 1907 and provides the Hundred Acre Wood setting for the author’s adored children’s novels, where Pooh and friends live.

In 1999, the original bridge was taken apart after it was worn down by thousands of tourists with a replacement put in its place while the original bridge was kept in Ashdown Forest Centre.

The purple, green and white flag of the Women’s Social and Political

Union

LOCKDALES, MARTLESHAM A purple, green and white flag of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), dated 1908, sold for £851 against an estimate of £150-£160 at the Suffolk auctioneers. The ‘Suffrage’ flag was the emblem of WSPU, the more militant of the suffrage organisations, often called Suffragettes. After 60 years of peaceful campaigns, the WSPU formed in 1903 with the motto “deeds not words” and engaged in campaigns of civil disobedience.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein set a world record for a printed work by a

CHRISTIE’S, NEW YORK An original 1818 three-volume copy of Mary Shelley’s (1797-1851) Frankenstein, from the first 500 print run, set a world record when it sold for a £863,000 ($1,17m) in America. Published anonymously and titled Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus on January 1, 1818, the first edition included a preface written by Percy Shelley and a dedication to the author’s father, William Godwin. The record for a printed work by a woman was previously held by a first edition of Jane Austen’s Emma from 1816, which was sold by Bonhams in 2008 for £150,000.

woman

14 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

MALLAMS, CHELTENHAM A Maori hei-tiki pendant from New Zealand sold for £30,000 at the Gloucestershire saleroom, way above its £600-£800 pre-sale estimate.

Made of green nephrite, an old paper label on the back

An Anglo-Indian table sold for £6,800, multiple times its pre-sale

The hei-tiki’s owner played a pivotal role in New Zealand’s founding document states that it purportedly estimate belonged to Maori chief Makoare Te Taonui who signed the Treaty of Waitangi on February 12, 1840.

SPINK, LONDON A rare gold Elizabeth I groat, expected to fetch £10,000, sold for £480,000 setting a world record for an Elizabethan coin at the London auction house.

It was one of 52 lots from the collection of Horace Hird, a third generation steeplejack, former Lord Mayor of Bradford, avid historian and renowned coin collector.

He paid hundreds of pounds — thousands in today’s money — for some of the coins in the 1940s and 1950s but their values have soared.

The Horace Hird 52-lot collection sold for a total of

£2.8m

RICHARD WINTERTON AUCTIONEERS, LICHFIELD The former US president Ronald Reagan was the top seller at £170 when two collections of Royal Doulton character and Toby jugs went under the hammer in Staffordshire, making a combined £4,000.

The 241-lot sale also included ceramic representations of Carry On stars Sid James and Charles Hawtrey, with each selling for £150 to make the second top result.

The Royal Doulton Ronald Reagan jug was the sale’s top seller at £170

The sale comprised two single-owner collections of 74 and 167 character jugs