Long-lost Winnie the pooh sketch found in tea towel

The 'grubby framed' famous sketch of the pair was discovered in the cellar of Christopher Foyle - former chairman of Foyles bookshops.

Transcript

00:00 I'm Chris Albury, I'm an auctioneer and senior valuer with Dominic Winter Auctioneers in

00:16 South Surney, Gloucestershire.

00:18 What we have here is an original pen and ink drawing of Winnie the Pooh and Piglets by

00:25 Ernest H. Sheppard.

00:42 This was actually drawn in 1958.

00:45 The original one, which was used in the book, was sold last year in December for $220,000.

00:54 We think this is rather special and the only other one you might find to buy anywhere and

00:59 we reckon £20,000 to £30,000.

01:11 This was found in an old tea towel in a cellar drawer in a very fabulous house called Beely

01:21 Abbey, a 12th century abbey near Malden in Essex, the family home of the Foyle family.

01:27 William Foyle, the founder's library, was sold by Christie's in 2001 for some £12

01:35 million.

01:36 This really is a continuation of that sale in that it belongs to Christopher Foyle, William's

01:41 grandson, which includes many of the books that weren't sold by Christie's.

01:48 But for whatever reason, this little treasure was in dusty cellar-taped frame in an old

01:55 tea towel in a cellar drawer.

02:09 My hunch about this illustration, which is, as we see, dated 1958 by Sheppard, is that

02:16 it may have been done at the time of one of Christina Foyle's literary lunches that Foyle's

02:23 used to run from the 1930s into the early 2000s and were a famous literary lunch where

02:31 authors and other guest speakers would come and talk.

02:34 Bertrand Russell, John Lennon, everyone turned up and paying guests would raise money.

02:41 And I wouldn't be surprised if Sheppard drew this on one such occasion when he was the

02:46 invited party and perhaps Christina didn't think much of it and just chucked it in the

02:52 back of a drawer and it got forgotten.

02:53 [END]