A sale of items belonging to Margaret Thatcher reveals her sense of humour, the auctioneer has said.
The former Conservative prime minister collected satirical cartoons by newspaper artists about the misfortunes of her children Mark and Carol.
A number of them are linked to her son’s dramatic disappearance during the six-day Paris-Dakar rally in 1982.
They will appear in around three dozen lots as part of a consignment from the Thatcher family in the sale at Sloane Street Auctions in London on February 6.
The auction house’s owner Dan Hunt said: “These cartoons are an important historical corrective.
“Mrs Thatcher was famously said to lack a sense of humour, but our catalogue clearly demonstrates that this was not the case.
“It is equally well known that her son’s disappearance was one of the most distressing experiences of her life, with her even breaking down in tears in public at the time – very unlike her – so for her to have acquired several cartoons that would have reminded her of that time is a fascinating insight. Perhaps it was her way of dealing with the trauma and exorcising its ghosts.”
In one cartoon by the Daily Mail’s Mac, the police, family and staff are seen hunting Number 10 while a helicopter hovers outside with the caption: “Little Michael is much like his father – lost!”
Another by the Evening Standard’s Jack shows a camel driver in the desert handing Mark a phone saying: “It’s your mother!”
The cartoons come framed, hand inscribed and with an estimate of £300-500.
Other items include an oil painting of Baroness Thatcher by artist Anne Mackintosh, expected to fetch £10,000-£15,000 which was reportedly her favourite portrait of herself.
It comes after the auction house secured huge prices for items in a previous sale last November including her speech-writing desk which took £60,000 after an estimate of £1,000-£2,000.
Mr Hunt added: “We were delighted with the stunning results of the first sale back in November.
“As I said then, these items are imbued with the spirit of the times and helped form the backdrop of some of the most historic moments in our nation’s political history of the past 50 years.”
