Pooh auction items fetch £9,300

Christopher Robin inspired the Pooh stories

A family photo album including a picture of Pooh author AA Milne's son Christopher Robin fetched £3,500 at auction on Thursday.

The photos, including one of Christopher aged six clutching Winnie the Pooh, went for more than three times their expected value.

Ink sketches by Pooh illustrator EH Shephard featuring the bear and his friends fetched £5,800.

The items went on sale at Dukes Auction House in Dorchester, Dorset.

The photograph album contained a number of images of the Milne family at Cotchford farm near Hartfield, East Sussex, and a photo of actor Leslie Howard in his younger years.

The sketches, entitled Pooh lowers the Sail, show Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet and friends in a sailing ship pulled by a horse landing at what looks like Toyland.

Gary Batt, partner at Dukes Auction House, said the two lots were sold to separate bidders, both based in England.

One was bought in the sale room by a dealer acting for a private collector; the other went by telephone to a London-based dealer.