Princess Diana’s childhood bicycle is at auction

by Josephine's day magazine
Princess Diana

Princess Diana’s childhood bicycle is for sale. Source: East Bristol Auctions

Next week Royal family enthusiasts and collectors will be able to buy an item that was especially dear to Princess Diana – her childhood bicycle. The East Bristol Auctions has listed fifty-year-old red Raleigh Chopper together with the hand written Christmas card from the Princess Diana.

East Bristol Auctions will offer this bike in their special Toy Collectors Auction next Saturday, July 24.

A bright red Tracker bicycle, manufactured by Trust Manufacturing Co., belonged to Princess Diana. A young Lady Spencer would ride with it around her family’s estate in Althorp in the 1970s.

ALthorp

Princess Diana childhood home in Althorp, England.

It was owned by the Spencer’s housekeeper, Maudie Pendrey. She purchased it from Diana’s parents for £20, according to Bristol Live, as a dear memory of her time with the family during Diana’s childhood.

The bike was later sold by Pendrey’s son in 2007, after Pendrey’s death in 2006, for display at the House On The Hill Toy Museum in Stansted, where it has since remained, according to the lot description online.

CHRISTMAS CARD FROM DIANA

Diana’s bike will be sold with a handwritten Christmas card addressed to her former housekeeper, Maudie Pendrey, in 1994. Source: East Bristol Auctions / SWNS

The bike will be sold with a handwritten Christmas card from the Princess of Wales to Maudie, dated 1994.

East Bristol Auctions expects to fetch between $28,000 and $41,000 (£20,000 to £30,000) on July 24, at their quarterly Specialist Toy Collectors Auction.

Per Bristol Live, toy specialist Lucy McCourt also said in a statement:

“Diana was the people’s Princess, and this is a chance to own a personal piece of her history. This is far from just a run-of-the-mill child’s bicycle!

One can almost imagine the young Diana riding around her childhood country estate on this.” – she continued.

Princess Diana died in 1997 at the age of 36 following a car crash that occurred during an attempt to flee the paparazzi in Paris. Princess Diana would have been 60 this year .

 

Princess Diana

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