A VERY rare set of colourised Cottingley Fairies pictures were the highlight of an auction which saw more of the iconic images go under the hammer this week.

Pictures of the Cottingley Fairies were taken in July and September 1917 by 16-year-old Elsie Wright and her nine-year-old cousin Frances Griffiths, in the village of Cottingley.

Eight of the lots owned by the daughter of Frances, Christine Lynch, were in the sale.

A total of 14 lots were put up for sale at Dominic Winter Auctioneers near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, and nine were sold for £50,000.

Among the successful lots were four coloured versions of the iconic pictures which had an estimate of £8-12,000 but sold for a total of £25,000.

Auctioneer and photography specialist Chris Albury said: "That went well.

"There is speculation that Elsie did them but there is no evidence."

He said Elsie had done colourised versions of soldiers from the First World War but equally they could have been created by Edward Gardner, a leading member of the Theosophical Society in Bradford at the time.

Mr Albury added: "How many were done, we don't know. They are very rare."

He said the total raised by the sale was below the estimate of £70,000 and a mixed picture but he was not too disappointed with the outcome as Mrs Lynch was not prepared to sell her family heirloom prints below the reserve of £10,000, particularly a contact print of Frances with a fairy ring and her writing on the back.

He said: "She wasn't going to let it go for less than the £10,000 reserve.

"It was the best selection of Cottingley Fairies pictures up for auction but perhaps there was a bit too much choice.

"You can get a battle for one photo and less for others.

"The set of enlargements didn't get going."

Also in the sale was a Cameo camera around which Mr Albury said there was a bit of mystery. It is thought to have been used to take the fifth picture in the series of Elsie receiving a bouquet of flowers which sold for £3,400, in the middle of the estimate.

And a picture of writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with fairies, described by Mr Albury as a "fake of a fake" sold for £1,400. "I was pleased with that," said Mr Albury.

Conan Doyle, a committed and leading spiritualist believer, became aware of the photographs which the girls took in 1920 and wanted to use them for an article on fairies he had been commissioned to write for The Strand Magazine.