News

1 January 2012

Fairy hoax proof goes on sale at Woburn

Pictures which inspired a generation to believe in fairies feature in new Memories of Childhood Exhibition

Antiques Centre Fairy

It was arguably the greatest hoax of the Edwardian age - pictures of fairies taken by two little girls who convinced the great and the good that they really did have little people living at the bottom of the garden.

The so-called “Cottingley Fairy Hoax” was staged by cousins Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright who claimed to have taken photographs of fairies in their West Yorkshire village, close to Bradford. The famous shots were examined by investigators including Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who declared that they were authentic leading to a stream of visitors to the site of the enchantment.

The girls maintained that the pictures were genuine until the 80s when they admitted that they had staged the pictures with drawings held in place by hatpins, inspired by an illustration in a book they had owned as children - the now rare Princess Mary’s Gift Book. The book contained fine art illustrations by the leading artists of the day and stories commissioned from leading writers including Conan Doyle himself who had failed to spot the similarity between the photographs and an illustration by artist Claude A. Shepperson entitled “A Spell for a Fairy.”

Now two copies of the book, with the original fairy illustration, together with the hoax pictures, are to form the focus of a new year exhibition of antique and vintage toys and memorabilia at the famous Woburn Abbey Antiques Centre, in the grounds of the famous stately home. And they were unearthed by a photographer and his journalist wife who have an antiques business there.

Snapper Andy Watts worked for the Sunday Times as a professional photographer for 18 years and still runs an international picture agency and Kathryn is a former national news reporter. Andy said: “When I came across the first copy it was part of a large auction lot of children’s books but the illustrations were so outstanding I thought it certainly merited some further research as some of the drawings are by the famous artists Sir Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac. It was only during the research that I found out the truth about the link to the Cottingley Fairies.”

Kathryn Holloway, a former Sky News and TV-am presenter and reporter says: “What was even more incredible was that, during a visit to a junk shop only a few days later we found a second copy of the book with all its wonderful illustrations intact. It’s rare to find them in this condition apparently as the pictures were printed separately and stuck into the books so most copies have gaps as they fell out easily. I vividly remember the Blue Peter reports on the Cottingley Fairies so they just had to be at the heart of the new exhibition.

“The mystery did in fact deepen as the girls took five photographs in all - the first 3 in 1917 and the last two after they were given a camera each by Conan Doyle in 1920. The daughter and grand-daughter of Frances went on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow and said that Frances maintained to her death that the last photograph was real. The camera and the original pictures were valued at up to £30,000. Our original books are a tiny fraction of that sadly at £125 each but we love the link to the story!”

Memories of Childhood is the recreation of an antique nursery dressed with vintage and antique toys, furniture, books and pictures and will run from 14th January to mid-March 2012 in the Woburn Abbey Antiques Centre in the South Court of Woburn Abbey, seat of the Duke of Bedford, and is open daily.