Original Wind In The Willows illustration fetches more than £33,000 at Cambridge auction
An original pencil-and-ink illustration for The Wind In The Willows that shows Mr Toad, Ratty, Badger and Mole outside Toad Hall was sold at a Cheffins auction for more than £33,000 - almost three times the pre-sale estimate.
The drawing by Ernest Howard Shepard was created around 1931 to illustrate the children’s novel by Kenneth Grahame. It was sold to a UK-based trade buyer by Cheffins in Cambridge for £33,644, far exceeding its estimate of £12,000.
Titled Swaggering down the Steps, the illustration shows Mr Toad coming down the steps of Toad Hall clad in motoring attire to meet Ratty, Badger and Mole. It is inscribed in the margins with instructions for the printer.
The drawing has been in private hands since it was bought by the owner’s family 69 years ago and it was recently rediscovered hanging on the stairs of an East Anglian country house.
Nicolas Martineau, a director at Cheffins, said: “We are delighted with this fantastic result which goes to show the enduring popularity of works by this most iconic of illustrators.
“This wonderful image has all that you could wish for as far as a scene from the The Wind In The Willows is concerned featuring the protagonist Toad with motor car outside Toad Hall being confronted by Ratty, Badger and Mole and illustrates one of the most memorable and amusing passages from the story.
“This work saw a great deal of pre-sale interest as we expected and this strong result is a testament to Shepard’s skill and brilliance.”
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E H Shepard was asked to illustrate The Wind In the Willows following his success in providing drawings for Punch magazine and A A Milne’s Winnie the Pooh.
He was introduced to Grahame by Milne himself, and as detailed in Carolyn Hares-Stryker’s book The Illustrators Of The Wind In The Willows, 1908-2008, Grahame reportedly said of his characters to Shepard: “I love these little people, be kind to them.”
The novelist described the local meadows, rivers, and woods from which he had drawn inspiration for his story and Shepard set off to sketch them.
Shepard recalled his final visit with Grahame before his death in 1932, saying: “I went to his home and was able to show him some of the results of my work, though critical, he seemed pleased and, chuckling, said, ‘I’m glad you’ve made them real’.”
Cheffins said the current auction record for Shepard was for a framed ink drawing of The Original Map of the Hundred Acre Wood from Winnie the Pooh which made £430,000 in 2018.
