Final Illustration of Pooh and Piglet to Auction
The original drawing by E.H. Shepard which brings AA Milne’s 1926 book Winnie-the-Pooh to a close will appear in Bonham’s Fine Books and Manuscripts auction later this month.
Described by Bonhams as “arguably the most important Winnie-the-Pooh drawing in existence”, it shows the two friends walking home after Christopher Robin’s party for Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood.
This signed pen and ink illustration on board is typical of Ernest Shepard’s work which he did first in pencil and then altered and finished in India ink. He then erased the pencil but in this drawing pencil marks show Piglet’s arms were originally hanging by his side, instead of holding them behind his back in the finished work.
Other items at the auction on December 13 include the investigation of planetary motion by Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), Lord Horatio Nelson’s 1805 battle plan for Trafalgar, and an inkwell featuring a bee reading used by Charles Dickens in his bedroom at his home in Gad’s Hill.
