THERE is never any shortage of news from the Hundred Acre Wood and this summer’s helpings included, at the very basic level, the straightforward 1926 first of Winnie the Pooh seen top right, a little rubbed and darkened to the spine, which brought a bid of £1350 (Sotherans) at a Dominic Winter sale of June 24.
Back on April 15, one first edition set of all four of those
much-loved Milne and Shepard books, the jackets again a bit browned
and rubbed and in one case showing tape repairs to verso, but with
When We Were Six of 1927 signed by both men to the front endpaper,
sold for $8500 (£4620) at Swanns and at Sotheby's New York on June
18, a set in which all four books had been doubly signed was bid to
$21,600 (£11,740).
The jackets of this set showed "moderate wear and spoiling", as
well as some light offsetting from the Peralta-Ramos red-inked
Chinese ownership stamps that had been applied to the front free
endpapers. The illustration of Pooh and Tigger eating honey at the
breakfast table can be found on p23 of the 1928 first edition of
The House at Pooh Corner, but this ink drawing, slightly larger
than the original, is signed and dated 1929 by Shepard. At
Sotheby's on July 8, it was sold for £15,000 to a London
gallery.
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