Featuring on the opening endpapers of the original 1926 book by AA Milne, the sketch introduces readers to the imagination of Christopher Robin and his woodland friends. Inscribed beneath the image Drawn by me and Mr Shepard helpd, it features other, sometimes clumsily spelled locations such as Nice for Piknicks and significant locations like Pooh Trap for Heffalumps.
Philip Errington, director and senior specialist at Sotheby’s book department, said: “I suspect that there isn’t a single child who wouldn’t instantly recognise this wonderful depiction of The Hundred Acre Wood. It is the visual guide to the entire world of Winnie-the-Pooh.
The map was offered alongside four other original Winnie-the-Pooh illustrations by EH Shepard, none of which had been seen in public for almost 50 years. In 1968 Sotheby’s sold it for £650 and two years later, on its quick return, it was bid to £1700 in the same rooms.
At triple the £100,000-150,000 estimate, the map set an auction record for a book illustration, bettering the £260,000 bid in December 2014 at Sotheby’s for the Poohsticks drawing from The House at Pooh Corner (1928).
Another version of that drawing, a copy signed and dated 1929, was offered last week. Also sold in 1969 at £1700, it carried an estimate of £60,000-80,000 and sold at £140,000.
