Winnie the Pooh illustration could fetch £100,000

ONE of the most famous images of Winnie the Pooh – as the bear plays “Poohsticks” with Piglet and Christopher Robin – is expected to fetch more than £100,000 at auction.

A Sotheby's gallery technician hangs a drawing at the auction house in central London by EH Shepard of Winnie the Pooh. Picture: AP

The illustration by EH Shepard, first published in 1928, has been in a private collection for over 40 years, but will be sold by Sotheby’s next month. The ink drawing featured in the AA Milne book The House At Pooh Corner for Chapter 6 “in which Pooh invents a new game and Eeyore joins in”.

It accompanies the closing scene of the chapter where the three characters stand on the “Poohsticks” bridge as the mood changes from the high excitement of their new game to a more wistful atmosphere.

The drawing will feature in Sotheby’s sales of English literature, history, children’s books and illustrations on 9 December and is estimated to sell for between £100,00 and £150,000.

The auction firm said: “The illustration can be counted among the most familiar, and most loved, cultural references in English literature.”

The original wooden crossing on which the illustration is based – known as Posingford Bridge, at Hartfield Farm, Sussex – had fallen into disrepair by the 1970s, but was restored and reopened by Christopher Milne – the author’s son who inspired the character of Christopher Robin – in May 1979.

It was completely rebuilt in 1999.


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