An original Winnie-the-Pooh sketch lost for years could sell at auction for up to $38,000

• A forgotten sketch from "Winnie-the-Pooh" illustrator E. H. Shepard was found in a cellar.
• The drawing was drawn on a small card with ink and pencil, and dated 1958.

A lost drawing from famed "Winnie-The-Pooh" illustrator E. H. Shepard was recently found in a strange location — in the back of a cabinet, wrapped in a dish towel.

The sketch is an original, according to CNN, and was signed and dated by Shepard in 1958. The drawing appears on the final pages of A. A. Milne's "Winnie-The-Pooh."

It was found in the cellar of Christopher Foyle, the former owner of the English bookshop chain Foyles, The Telegraph reported. Foyle died in 2022, and auctioneers had been valuing his effects and antiques when the drawing was found, per CNN.

The auctioneers said the drawing could have been misplaced or forgotten for decades.

Chris Albury, a senior auctioneer as Dominic Winter Auctioneers, which will handle the sale, told CNN the sketch was incredibly valuable.

"It's worth some tens of thousands of pounds," he said.

In a press release from the auctioning house, the sketch was estimated to auction for between £20-30,000, or about $25-38,000.

The sketch is a re-drawing of Shepard's — the first 1925 copy, according to the release, was sold in 2022 in New York for over $200,000.

"It's not in the same league as the original drawing made for the book in the 1920s, but it is the next best thing," Albury told CNN. "It's a fantastically poignant image that means so much to so many adults and children nearly a century after first publication."

The sketch will be sold at an auction with other contents of Foyle's library on September 27, according to the Dominic Winter website.

Famous illustrations from older books or comics have been auctioned off for thousands in past years, but the Shepard drawing is valued higher than many.

Drawings by Quentin Blake, who illustrated much of author Roald Dahl's work, are valued at between $2,500 and about $4,000. A hand-painted collage of the titular character from "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle is valued at about $10,000.

The Dominic Winter Auctioneers did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, sent outside regular business hours.