20k Lying Around in Your Attic Might Look Like This

Antique website Love Antiques has estimated the twenty most valuable items of suffragette memorabilia in partnership with Elizabeth Crawford, suffrage historian and antique book dealer. 

The price of Suffragette memorabilia can vary based on the item’s rarity, condition and additional features such as signatures from Emmeline Pankhurst and/or Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence.

20k Lying Around in Your Attic Might Look Like This

Pank-a-squith, toy with Suffragette message

An antique is classified as an object that is 100+ years old, so it’s exciting to officially welcome suffragette memorabilia into the antique family. We’ve had several items from this important time period sold through the site and have seen an unsurprising increase in demand around the centenary celebrations. It will be fascinating to see what other items we see on the market in the next 12 months, as well as the prices they command. –  Will Thomas, managing director at Love Aniquess

The Hackney Museum Marks Today’s Centenary of Women’s Suffrage

The top ten most valuable items on the list are as follows:

1. Suffrage Banner – £20,000
2. Hunger-strike medal – £10,000
3. Suffrage Poster – £7,000
4. Holloway Brooch – £4,500
5. Illuminated address to prisoners – £3,000
   
6. Votes for Women sash – £3,000
   

   Votes for Women sash

7. Suffragette jewellery – £1,000-£4,000
8. Suffragette Society Badges – £100-£2,000
9. China – £750 for a plate, £1,200 for a cup and saucer, and £4,000 for a teapot
10. Toys with Suffragette messages – circa £1,000

WSPU china

Love Antiques offers tips on how to determine genuine suffragette material in a market full of pieces classified, for example, as suffragette jewellery when the items are irrelevant to the cause. Jewellery can be classified as authentic only if it is known to be a type sold by the suffrage societies, like the silver and enamel pendant bearing the ‘Angel of Freedom’ motif designed by Sylvia Pankhurst.

Items from this period have never been more in demand thanks to the centenary of the Act and the popularity of the movement. Anyone with suffrage memorabilia in their family, especially if it’s gathering dust in the attic, would do well to get it valued and consider putting it in front of serious collectors at auction or by getting in touch with a reputable dealer. If it’s in good condition, you really could be sitting on a small fortune. – Elizabeth Crawford

Visit Love Antiques for details. 

As excited about suffrage as we are? Check out our feature on 100 Years of Suffrage: What It Means to be a Woman in 2018