Cottingley Fairies: The mysterious fifth photo that girl always claimed was 'real' picture of fairies
An intriguing photograph that continued to be claimed as a “real” picture of fairies after two girls admitted the rest were hoaxes is part of a set going under the hammer.
The photographs were put up for auction by a Devon farming family who only realised what a rarity they had when they saw Cottingley Fairy memorabilia featured on TV’s Antiques Roadshow – and later read about how much two of the photographs made at auction in Louth last month.
Their set includes the mysterious fifth and final shot – which continued to be claimed to capture real fairies even after the schoolgirl hoaxers had finally admitted that they faked the rest.
In 1917, 16-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 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 and which he then got hand-printed. He used these for lectures around the country and sold some sets at the events.
Two prints which belonged to Frances Griffiths made £2,600, double a pre-sale estimate at auction last month.
James Laverack of auctioneers John Taylors said the photographs going under the hammer tomorrow were brought by a relative of the vendor at a spiritualist lecture for 15 shillings. Equivalent to a mere 75 pence now, in 1920 it could have been enough to rent a house in London for a week.
He said: “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!”