Uncategorized
BB Is Back: What the Peter Wheat Collection and Gildings’ Latest Auction Tell Us About a Booming Market
Dec
This year marked a major highlight for us at Thomas Turner as we acquired the Peter Wheat BB Collection — a superb archive of books, illustrations, personal items, and angling pieces connected to the great countryside writer and illustrator Denys Watkins-Pitchford (‘BB’).
Wheat, himself an angling writer of great renown, had accumulated a number of important BB pieces over decades. The collection offers a rare, intimate link with one of Britain’s finest rural storytellers.
And as it turns out, the timing couldn’t be better — because demand for BB’s work is soaring.
Gildings Auction Confirms Surging Interest in BB
Source: Gildings Auctioneers (gildings.co.uk)
A recent Gildings auction produced a series of exceptional results for original BB artwork, scraperboard illustrations, and early editions — reinforcing the strength of the current market.
Highlights included:
-
‘The Two Hoodie Crows’, a signed 1949 winter landscape, selling for £1,100 — more than double its estimate.
-
A scraperboard illustration from The Little Grey Men achieving £850 against a guide of £80–£120.
-
A set of Bill Badger first editions fetching £480 (estimate £200–£300).
-
A first edition of The Little Grey Men with related volumes selling for £260, more than doubling expectations.
-
Even a carp rod made for the BB Society saw strong competition, reaching £260.
The full Gildings article paints a clear picture:
BB’s appeal is not only enduring — it is accelerating.
Collectors across the country (and well beyond Northamptonshire) are competing for pieces that capture BB’s unique blend of nostalgia, naturalism, and gentle storytelling.
Where the Wheat Collection Fits Into This Boom
The Wheat collection sits squarely within this renewed wave of enthusiasm.
It includes:
-
Rare first editions
-
Signed works
-
Original prints and illustrations
-
Personal and angling-related items
-
Beautifully preserved volumes with exceptional provenance
In short, it contains exactly the sort of material the market is demonstrating a growing appetite for.
Available Now — With Much More to Come
We already have a selection of BB items from the Wheat collection live on the website, and they have been extremely well received.
But the most exciting part?
👉 We still have many more pieces yet to catalogue, photograph, and release.
Some of these have never before been available to the general public.
Collectors of BB, lovers of countryside literature, and admirers of fine illustration will not want to miss what’s coming.
