A CHILDHOOD teddy bear, birth certificate, treasured family photographs and other personal effects belonging to a legendary cellist have together fetched almost £52,000 at auction.
The 137-lot collection, which offered an intimate glimpse into the childhood and early career of the musician Jacqueline du Pré – whose father was born in Jersey and who maintained a close connection to the Island – went under the hammer at Gardiner Houlgate auctioneers in Wiltshire on Friday.
Among the standout lots was a collection of tunes composed for the young du Pré by her mother, pianist Iris Greep, which fetched £4,000.
A photograph showing the musician playing her first cello as a child sold for £1,100, while her birth certificate made £1,000 and her childhood teddy bear, Sebastian, fetched £620.
Auctioneer Jamie South told BBC Wiltshire that the sale had “well exceeded” its upper estimate of between £35,000 and £40,000, with buyers from the United States and Europe among those securing handwritten letters, photographs and sheet music.
The collection was put up for sale by Mrs du Pré’s sister, Hilary Finzi, who previously said many of the items had been stored by the family for decades.
Mrs Du Pré, who was regarded as a young prodigy, performed in Jersey as a 17-year-old in 1962, receiving a “magnificent reception” from an audience of more than 600 at the Jersey Festival of Music.
She went on to perform around the world, and was profiled by the New York Times in 1967 – at which point, her performances had already been selling out for several years, and she was already being compared with the greatest cellists of the age.
Sadly, her career was curtailed by a multiple sclerosis diagnosis and she died aged 42.
A second auction, focusing on her later career, is planned for December.
