Elizabeth Crawford, who was awarded an OBE earlier this year for services to education and the understanding of women’s history, was successful as bidding soared above the £1000-1500 estimate to sell for £16,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium) on July 2 in Etwall, Derbyshire.
The archive, which belonged to sisters Edith, Florence, and Grace Hodgson – one of whom went to prison for the cause – was discovered under the stairs at a north London property.
The sisters kept everything relating to their political fight including badges, white enamel Votes for Women pins, sashes and a Women’s Freedom League pennant featuring Holloway Prison and the words Stone Walls Do Not A Prison Make.
Great-aunts
The seller came to a Hansons valuation event with the collection. She said: “The three Suffragettes were [my late husband’s] great-aunts and he used to catch the train to visit them with his family. They were born in Islington and lived in a three-storey house, each with a floor to themselves. They never married or had children.”
After the sale, Crawford said: “This collection is very unusual and it will give me great pleasure to research and catalogue these items. I will be looking into the lives of the sisters.
“As a dealer, I can’t promise that all the items will stay together but some of them will go to important institutions which could not have afforded to buy the collection in its entirety.”
Also see Previews for another Suffragette archive coming up at auction.
