More Pooh

That bear with very little brain is back again. On 17 December Sotheby's London will offer for sale what it claims is the finest single collection of E.H. Shepard’s original drawings for Winnie-the-Pooh books to come to auction. The lots include this drawing: Winnie-the-Pooh lived in a forest all by himself under the name of Sanders, estimated price £40,000 to £60,000. It will be interesting to see if Pooh remains recession-proof (see Tuesday's post or CLICK). Also, will the Art Fund step in to keep such treasures for the nation, if foreign buyers snap them up? (I recently acquired a 1949 copy of Everybody's Boswell, just for Shepard's delightful illustrations.)