She went on to captivate the public through her romance with fellow actor Laurence Olivier and her Oscar-winning performance in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’.
Among the selection of treasures now set to go under the hammer at Sotheby’s is her personal copy of Gone with the Wind. The Pulitzer Prize-winning book was published in 1937, two years before the film based on it was released, and this copy was given to Leigh by the author Margaret Mitchell. Leigh said that from “the moment she read” the epic of the US south, “I was fascinated by the lovely, wayward, tempestuous Scarlett”.
The book is inscribed by the author with a handwritten poem and the piece is estimated at £5000-7000.
The collection, which is offered by Leigh’s family, includes jewellery, dresses, photographs and the art which she collected throughout her life.
Among the 45 works of art included in the sale on September 26 is a 1942 portrait of her by Augustus John. The drawing is a study for a painting commissioned by Olivier, whom she married, which was never finished. The preparatory work is estimated at £5000-7000.
Another starring lot is expected to be John Piper’s painting of Notley Abbey, the second home of Leigh and Olivier in Buckinghamshire. The medieval building appealed particularly to Olivier, who said “I never had anything in my life I loved like that house”. The painting is estimated at £8000-12,000 and is offered with a Christmas card from the Oliviers featuring the work on the front.
