Original Pooh sketch under hammer

A section of EH Shepard’s illustration, Tiggers don’t like honey

An original sketch of favourite AA Milne character Winnie the Pooh, featuring Tigger and Piglet, is expected to fetch £20,000 at auction.

The pencil drawing of the bear dipping a paw in a honey pot is being sold at Bonhams auction rooms in London by the family of the artist, EH Shepard.

A specialist at Bonhams said it would appeal to five generations of readers.

The sale on Tuesday also includes a first sketch for Kenneth Grahame’s story The Wind in the Willows.

The pencil drawing shows Rat and Mole having a picnic on a river bank, and is expected to make around £10,000.

The Pooh stories are timeless because they’re not laden with morality Luke Batterham Bonhams

It appeared in the published book with the caption “Now pitch in, old fellow! And the Mole was indeed very glad to obey”.

The oval drawing of Pooh is an enlarged and expanded version of the illustration “Tiggers don’t like honey” used in The house at Pooh Corner.

Bonhams’ book specialist Luke Batterham told BBC News the Pooh stories are timeless because they are not “laden with morality like many childrens’ tales”.

Rat and Mole have a picnic in Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows

He said: “The illustrations are essential. Visually, that’s what is kept in people’s imaginations.

“The images are constantly in the public’s mind because of all the spin-offs, but you can’t beat the original drawings.”

He added that the original books have “outlived” and “defeated” the Disney versions of the story.

Other Shepard illustrations up for sale include two pencil sketches for Milne’s poem Buckingham Palace, published in 1924.

In one, Christopher Robin salutes a palace guard; the other shows him holding hands with Alice.

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