Virginia Woolf first edition sells at auction

A collection including first editions by British novelist Virginia Woolf and Hollywood actor Charles Laughton has sold at auction for £12,000 - six times higher than its estimate.

The signed books, photos and papers presented by the author and actor to their cook and housekeeper, Nellie Boxall, went under the hammer at Ewbank's auctioneers in Woking, Surrey.

Boxall worked for Virginia and Leonard Woolf for 18 years before being employed by Laughton and his wife, the actress Elsa Lanchester, in 1934.

There she cooked for celebrities of the day such as Marlene Dietrich.

A signed first edition of the novel Orlando was in the sale dated 11 Oct 1928 with the inscription - "Nellie Boxall from Virginia Woolf".

That was accompanied by a signed and inscribed first edition biography by Lanchester about her life with Laughton.

Boxall, who died in 1965, became a literary figure in her own right thanks to Virginia Woolf, with connections to The Bloomsbury Set.

Born in Farncombe, Surrey, she went into domestic service after the death of her mother.

The auction lot included two vintage photos of Virginia Woolf from 1902 and 1925 and a digitally printed folded page showing a photograph of domestic staff taken by Woolf's sister Vanessa Bell at Charleston, East Sussex, in 1922.

Denise Kelly, from Ewbank's, said: "This is a wonderful time capsule helping to bring an important character related to The Bloomsbury Set back to light after almost 100 years.

"It is very clear from both the way that Virginia Woolf wrote about Nellie, and the manner in which Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester addressed her, that she was no mere servant to them, but a revered and loved member of the households."

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