Two long-lost illustrations for The Jungle Book that hung unnoticed in a family home for decades have sold for a combined £130,480.
The surprise sale smashed the £20,000 pre-sale estimate for each artwork after a fierce international bidding battle drove prices sky high.
The newly rediscovered works were created by artist prodigy twins Edward Detmold and Maurice Detmold, who produced the illustrations when they were just 20.
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The first piece, by Maurice, depicts the Bandar-log – the mischievous “monkey people”.
It eventually sold online to a UK buyer for £36,640.
The second illustration, by Edward, shows Mowgli alongside the black panther Bagheera and soared far past its £15,000–£20,000 estimate.
Four bidders online and on the telephone battled it out before the artwork finally sold to a phone bidder for £93,840, as reported by What’s The Jam.
After the sale, expert Lara L’vov-Basirov said:
“The level of bidding reflects just how rarely works of this importance appear on the market.
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“To offer two of the seven known surviving original watercolours from the Jungle Book series was exceptional, and collectors immediately recognised their significance both as works of art and as part of the visual history of Kipling’s most famous book.
“It is immensely gratifying to see them achieve such strong results.”
The drawings – showing scenes from the famous story – had been hanging unrecognised on the walls of a London family home for decades.
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Their discovery stunned the former owners.
The anonymous seller said: “We are absolutely delighted with these results.
“We’ve cherished these works in our family home for decades and we hope that the next custodians enjoy them as much as we have.”
The watercolours were created between 1902 and 1903 for Sixteen Illustrations of Subjects from The Jungle Book, a deluxe portfolio commissioned by Macmillan & Co and published in 1903.
Limited to just 500 copies, the portfolio was issued separately from the original book, which had first appeared in 1894.
The famous collection brought together stories author Rudyard Kipling had previously published in magazines between 1893 and 1894, with illustrations by several artists – including the author’s own father.
In 1908, the first standard printed edition of The Jungle Book to include the Detmold illustrations within the book itself was released by Macmillan.
That edition featured 16 plates and a frontispiece created by the twins.
Because the plates were often removed and framed individually, complete 1903 portfolios are now extremely rare.
Among the institutions holding one is the Library of Congress.
Even rarer are the original watercolours created for the project.
The first rediscovered illustration, by Edward and signed ‘EJD’, depicts Mowgli with Bagheera using delicate line work and controlled washes.
The second, The Cold Lairs, by Maurice and signed ‘M DETMOLD’, shows the ruined city of the Bandar-log, combining dense jungle foliage with lively animal figures inspired by the brothers’ close study of nature.
The Detmold twins had won the prestigious commission aged just 18, having already exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts when they were only 13.
Their striking interpretation helped shape how readers imagined Kipling’s jungle world for decades – until The Jungle Book created a new visual tradition.
Tragically, Maurice Detmold later took his own life at the age of 25.
The two artworks were sold by Roseberys in London.
Their discovery increased the number of known surviving originals from the original set of sixteen illustrations to six.
Before the find, only four were known to exist.
But another original watercolour has now surfaced at Bateman’s in East Sussex.
That brings the total number of known originals to seven, two of which are now held in the collection of the National Trust.
Kipling himself became the first English-language author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907, aged just 41.
