'Alice in Wonderland' collection fetches 88,000 dollars at auction

[February 09, 2017]   LONDON (Reuters) - One of the world's largest collections of "Alice in Wonderland" memorabilia, featuring over 3,000 items, was sold at an Oxford auction house on Wednesday for around 70,000 pounds ($88,000).

The collection, which features memorabilia of the fantasy novel by Lewis Carroll - also known as Charles Lutwidge Dodgson - was owned by late antiquarian book and prints dealer Thomas Schuster and his wife Greta.

The couple built the collection over 25 years, buying at auctions, antique fairs, and through specialist dealers.

Among the items on sale were a first edition of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" published by Macmillan in 1866, stamp cases, statuettes of characters from the novel and a rare 1920s calendar stand of the Mad Hatter.

The collection was sold in 360 lots, Mallams auction house said.

"What attracted my husband and I to the work of Charles Dodgson is the sheer magic of the stories and the extraordinary intelligence behind them," said Greta Schuster.

"He created a world of great imagination which we found bewitching. If he had been alive today we would have been the best of friends, as he became one of our best friends through many happy years of collecting his works."

Oxford celebrates an annual "Alice's Day" in honor of the novel, with this year's celebrations scheduled for July 1.

(Reporting by Ritvik Carvalho; editing by Stephen Addison)

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