FOUR Christmas cards illustrated by the author Beatrix Potter have been sold at auction for more than £40,000 in Highworth.

Three anonymous bidders purchased the signed watercolours for a total of £41,500 at Kidson-Trigg auctioneers yesterday afternoon.

Saleroom manager Pippa Kidson-Trigg said: “The cards have smashed all our expectations.

“We had an estimate of between £10,000 and £15,000 for the lot, so we’ve more than tripled that.

“Two of the cards were bought by phone bids from England and the others came from bids in the room.”

Mrs Kidson-Trigg was unable to confirm whether the buyers were local or not, but said that the sellers were very happy.

The cards were put up for auction by a family who live in a village near Swindon.

They are related to the late Bessie and Elinor Lupton, who shared a great grandfather with Beatrix Potter.

Mrs Kidson-Trigg said: “The family auctioned all the heavy furniture up in Leeds, but there were some smaller bags of goodies left over.

“As you can imagine, they were absolutely delighted with the outcome.”

Each of the cards dates back to the end of the 19th Century and are signed either HBP or Beatrix Potter.

Posted: 09|21|06 at 1:24 pm. Filed under: UK News.