The Bob Cottingley Fairies Treasure

The photographs have been entered by members of a Devon farming family who only realised what a rarity they had when they saw Cottingley Fairy memorabilia featured on an Antiques Roadshow programme - and later read about the result achieved when two of the photographs were auctioned in Louth last month

Their set includes the mysterious fifth and final shot, the one that continued to be claimed to capture real fairies even after the schoolgirl hoaxers had finally admitted that they faked the rest

James Laverack of auctioneers John Taylors said: “In 1917 sixteen-year-old Elsie Wright took two photographs of her cousin Frances Griffiths with the fairies that they said lived around the beck at the bottom of their garden in the village of Cottingley in West Yorkshire”.

“When the news began to spread photographic experts were asked to examine the glass plate negatives. Their verdict was that there was no evidence of tampering. Some of them went even further and said the pictures were not fakes."

“The story went global when Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about the Cottingley Fairies in The Strand Magazine. Meanwhile the famous spiritualist Edward Gardner got the girls to take three more photographs with cameras that he supplied and he then had high quality prints of all the photographs hand printed. He used them for lectures around the country and sold some sets at the events.”

“It was two of those prints that went under the hammer in our auction last month, prints that once belonged to Frances Griffiths the girl who appears in the photographs with the fairies."

James said: "The news coverage of that auction resulted in the new photographs being sent to us by a lady living in the Okehampton area of Devon.

"It is a complete set that it's believed were bought by the vendor's grandmother, Bideford farmer's daughter Clare Risdon - or perhaps her sister Betty - at an Edward Gardner spiritualist lecture. The photographs cost fifteen shillings - a mere 75 modern pence - although in 1920 you could rent a house in London for fifteen shillings a week!"

"They've since been passed down from generation to generation in the family for the past hundred years but during that time the memory of what they were eventually faded away."

"It was only when Frances Griffith's daughter appeared on an episode of the Antiques Roadshow in 2009 with some of the photographs and one of the cameras that they realised they had a full set of Cottingley Fairy photographs sitting in their bureau drawer - and it was even later that they realised these Gardner high quality prints are actually pretty rare."

James added: "The set does include the intriguing fifth and final photograph - the one that Francis Griffiths continued to believe showed real fairies even after the girls admitted they had faked the rest. Both girls claimed to have taken that photograph, claims which have led to photography experts speculating that they achieved an accidental double exposure - creating the strange ghostly image."

Asked about value James said: "The two Cottingley photographs that we auctioned last month made £2,600, double pre-sale predictions. These do not have the same personal link to the hoaxers but it is the full set and they are rare. We expect them to make £2,000 - £3,000. Not bad for a fifteen bob investment!"

The auction catalogue is available on the firm’s website (www.johntaylors.com). The viewing sessions at the Eastgate Saleroom are on Sunday and Monday (31st August & 1st September) 1pm-3pm. The auction starts at 10 o’clock on Tuesday (2nd September).