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Original Winnie-the-Pooh art sets world auction record

Catherine Saunders-Watson
Catherine Saunders-Watson
Winnie-the-Pooh
The original map of Winnie-the-Pooh’s Hundred Acre Wood had been unseen for 50 years prior to its auction on July 10, 2018 in London. Image courtesy of Sotheby’s

LONDON (AP) — The original hand-drawn map of Winnie-the-Pooh’s Hundred Acre Woods has sold at auction for 430,000 pounds ($571,000), a record price for a book illustration.
E.H. Shepard’s drawing sold at Sotheby’s in London today for almost three-times its pre-sale estimate.

Shepard’s 1926 sketch features beloved characters including Pooh and Christopher Robin, and landmarks including “Bee Tree” and “Eeyore’s Gloomy Place.”

It was last sold in 1970 for 1,700 pounds.

Shepard’s illustrations helped cement the popularity of A.A. Milne’s “bear of very little brain” and his woodland friends. In 2014, an ink drawing of the characters playing the game poohsticks sold for a then-record 314,500 pounds.

The map and four other Shepard Winnie-the-Pooh illustrations sold for a total of 917,500 pounds at Tuesday’s auction.

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