Signed copy of Peter Pan to fetch £20,000
An "extremely rare" first edition copy of Peter and Wendy signed by J.M. Barrie is expected to sell for up to £20,000 at auction.
- By Michael Alexander
- Published in the Courier : 07.10.10
- Published online : 07.10.10 @ 03.58pm
The vellum-bound book was given by Barrie to his close friend and society beauty, Lady Diana Cooper (nee Manners) and is signed "To Diana Manners, from her friend, J.M. Barrie, Christmas 1911."
Nearly 100 years later it is now set to fetch £18,000 to £20,000 at Sotheby's in London on October 28.
Sotheby's say it is one of an extremely limited number, no other copy has been sold at auction in the last 35 years and even Barrie's step-daughter only received a standard-bound copy.
Peter Pan first appeared in The White Bird in 1902. The stage play was first performed in 1904 and Barrie published the novel, Peter and Wendy, based on the play, in 1911.
It is appropriate this copy of Peter and Wendy should come up for sale 150 years after Barrie's birth on May 9, 1860, in Kirriemuir. Barrie and Peter Pan put the burgh on the map and there is now a statue of Peter Pan in the main square.
Lady Diana Cooper was an extraordinary woman, immortalised by Evelyn Waugh as Mrs Stitch and Arnold Bennett as Queenie Paulle. She was D.H. Lawrence's Lady Artemis Hooper and Nancy Mitford's Lady Leone.
She was loved by Prime Minister Asquith, the great bass Chaliapin, Lord Beaverbrook and Lord Wimborne. She was the idol of the "golden generation".
The copy of Peter and Wendy is among 149 rare books assembled over 45 years by a 75-year-old mystery man that are now expected to sell for around £3 million at Sotheby's sale.
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