decade before the advent of Photoshop , two girls from England fooled the earth with images that appeared to depict fag dance in their garden . The story they say has since been debunk , but the Cottingley Fairies photographs remain famous for being one of the most successful humbug in chronicle . Interest in the photos is still so strong today thatThe Guardianreports two of them were just sell at auction for $ 26,000 — more than 10 times their image value .
Nine - class - honest-to-goodness Frances Griffiths and her 16 - year - old cousin Elsie Wright took the photograph at Wright ’s mother ’s house in the Greenwich Village of Cottingley , England in1917 . Wright ’s father , the owner of the tv camera and an amateur lensman , suspected they were fakes , but his married woman Polly was convert they were the veridical thing .
After attending a lecture on queen spirit at the Theosophical Society , Polly shared the pictures with the speaker and they were made public for the first time . The photograph might have outride within medium circles if they had n’t caught the eye ofSir Arthur Conan Doylein 1920 . TheSherlock Holmesauthor was writing an clause about pouf forStrand Magazine , and he featured the photos in his bit as proof of their existence . The story of the Cottingley Fairies quickly made global headline .
Wright and Griffiths maintained that the painting were reliable until 1983 , when they fink that they had faked them by copying trope from a children ’s book and propping up the undercut - out with hatpin . The two cousins take issue on the report behind thefifth picture , however , with Wright saying it was a hoax like the balance of them and Griffiths insist it was echt until her death .
When the first two of the original photographs recently hit the auction pulley-block at Dominic Winter Auctioneers in Gloucestershire , England , they were expected to sell for between $ 900 and $ 1300 . The price the UK - based buyers paid for the image far exceeded the auction house ’s expectations .
Despite the auctioneers ' humbled estimate , this is n’t the first time that Cottingley Fairy artifact have sell big at auction bridge . In 1998 , prints of the photographs and a first edition copy of Doyle ’s book on the subject area , The orgasm of the Fairies , were auction off off for£21,620 , or about $ 28,300 .
[ h / tThe Guardian ]
