When her beloved husband Major Iain Grahame died 18 months ago, Antiques Roadshow favourite Bunny Campione came to acknowledge that some things don’t last forever.
Iain may have been 91, but his death was sudden.
‘He fell over and banged his head, but for four hours he was up eating, talking, everything else. And then suddenly he was unconscious,’ she says.
‘He didn’t wake up again. I stayed up with him all night.’
A mere 15 hours after his fall he was dead.
Her loss made Bunny realise she needed to start selling some of the immense collection of antiques that filled the home she shared with Iain.
Antiques Roadshow’s Bunny Campione reveals she’s selling off her own collectibles and the beloved item she turned down £10,000 for
The star has said she’s selling something more personal, her huge collection of bunny rabbits amassed during her 78 years and inspired by her name.
The house will eventually go to the Daws Hall Trust, the educational nature charity Iain founded called.
First to go was a collection of ornate birdcages and corkscrews which she sold last year.
Now she’s selling something more personal, her huge collection of bunny rabbits amassed during her 78 years and inspired by her name.
‘I want to see other people enjoy them, because I’ve had a lovely time with them,’ says Bunny, who keeps the majority of her rabbits on a Welsh dresser in her kitchen.
‘I sort of feel I must downsize a bit because I’ve been such a collector all my life, and I’ve got too many things. I’ve now got to adjust to life on my own. It’s a strange feeling.’
Bunny isn’t her real name of course – she was born Carolyn – but ever since her parents gave her a brown rabbit fur coat with a hood and bunny ears, Bunny is the name she has gone by.
‘I was about two-and-a-half and I said, “I’m Bunny” and no one was allowed to call me anything else,’ she recalls.
‘Mummy used to take me shopping and I would wind down the window – as you did in those days – and shout, “Bunny loves everybody.”’
Bunny said: ‘I want to see other people enjoy them, because I’ve had a lovely time with them,’ says Bunny who keeps the majority of her rabbits on a Welsh dresser in her kitchen’
And because Bunny is a toy expert, it’s no wonder she started collecting toy bunnies.
The bunny expected to fetch the most money is a 1906 Peter Rabbit toy made by Steiff, the German toy company that created the world’s first factory-made teddy bear.
The rabbit was given to her by a client’s wife who found it, incredibly, in a dustbin in Athens.
‘It’s beautifully made out of wool, sheepskin and felt, and it’s in very good condition,’ says Bunny.
‘We know its an early one because Steiff toys have a little metal button on the ears and in 1905 (NOT 1906??) they were plain – later on they had Steiff written on them.
‘It actually seems to have gone down in value. About ten years ago I was offered £10,000 for it but I think we’re putting it up for £4,000.
I don’t regret not selling it earlier though, I’ve enjoyed it for a long time. It sits on the shelf in my kitchen and I look at it every day. It’s one of my favourites.’
Controversially, Steiff originally marketed the tiny toys not as Peter Rabbit, but as a ‘rabbit with a blue jacket’.
The bunny expected to fetch the most money is a 1906 Peter Rabbit toy made by Steiff, the German toy company that created the world’s first factory-made teddy bear
Beatrix Potter was said to be furious and after that she ensured all dolls based on her characters were licensed and used their correct name.
A second Steiff Peter Rabbit, this one from 1908 and valued at £1,000-£1,500 is also part of the collection, while a tray of ten Steiff baby rabbits will be on sale starting at £300.
Another valuable rabbit is Oswald the Lucky Rabbit – who turned out to be not so lucky.
The rabbit was created in 1927 by Walt Disney and the subject of several animated films – Bunny’s 1928 woollen rabbit is part of the original merchandise.
Oswald’s rights were bought by Universal Pictures in 1928 and Disney created a new character to replace him – Mickey Mouse, who went on to become the most famous cartoon character in the world.
Bunny picked up Oswald at an auction for £800 15 years ago but he had an unfortunate incident when Bunny’s real rabbit chewed a bit off, reducing his value. Bidding will start at £400.
‘Sadly, my real rabbit Percy was let loose in the kitchen and was maybe jealous of Oswald as he bit his shoe,’ says Bunny.
Another of the treasures in the collection is an automaton knitting rabbit by Roullet & Decamps, which nods when operated.
Bunny bought it at auction for £800 and is hoping to make a small profit from it. Altogether the collection of 50 toys should net her at least £10,000.
While she’s always loved toys – and is holding on to the first bunny her parents gave her when she was two – Bunny never expected to become one of the nation’s best known toy experts.
Her first love was art and she was desperate to work at Sotheby’s. She refused to take no for an answer.
‘If you really want something and it’s within your reach you have to go on trying for it,’ she says.
While she’s always loved toys – and is holding on to the first bunny her parents gave her when she was two – Bunny never expected to become one of the nation’s best known toy experts
‘They kept saying no but I kept on annoying the personnel director so he eventually offered me a job on the front counter.
This was in 1966 and it was wonderful as people would just come in with their goods and they would be looked at by the specialists at the counter. It was real hands-on learning.’
She then got a role in the silver department ‘not my scene, I found it rather cold’, and then furniture.
At that time something only counted as antique if it was pre-Victorian.
‘Because I was a woman I wasn’t allowed to be a specialist, but doll and automata at that point came under the furniture department and because no one else wanted to do them, I ended up working on them.
‘We had one client who was an amazing collector of dolls and she adopted me, basically, and would send me catalogues of doll sales in America so I could keep abreast of what things were being sold for.
One day someone from our sister company in Devon sent an image of a doll which I recognised because I’d seen it in an American catalogue and I said, “This has got to come to London, it’s of international importance!”
‘That became my first star sale – it was a porcelain doll which made £6,000 and broke records for the sale of a doll. The next day I was photographed in all the papers and asked if I would like to help set up a doll department.’
Antiques Roadshow soon came calling.
‘I remember having tea with the producer around the corner from Sotheby’s and he said, “You can’t just do dolls, you have to do miscellaneous” and I told him, “I will do my best.” Then he said, “And you’ve got to lose the plum in your voice” and I thought, “S**t, what am I getting into?”’
Bunny is the second-longest serving expert on the show, having started in 1986 a few years after Hilary Kay.
‘They’ve just sent me the new venues to tick the ones I can do, so hopefully they’ll still want me for something,’ she says.
She still loves it but doesn’t approve of all the changes. ‘It has completely changed over the years.
‘Even ten years ago you didn’t know what was coming in. You would sit there and they would queue for hours and hours but now you know what’s coming in because they send photographs.
‘They get tickets so they’re told what time to come and that they’re going to be filmed. Because we know what’s coming, I don’t think it’s so spontaneous and I must admit that’s a pity because it shows.
‘You don’t get the same reaction. They’re doing it because it saves money – and we now make three programmes out of each venue which I think is dumbing down. And not everything is antiques – some of it is from the 70s,’ she says disapprovingly.
Bunny retains her plummy accent and admits she’s ‘a bit too posh’ for the BBC.
‘Now they’ve got to have what they call ethnic minorities, disabled, trans. That’s the BBC. The only good thing for me is that I’m female.’
She’s also charming and funny. She jokes that the producers love to keep in her most embarrassing malapropisms and cheeky sense of humour.
‘I was filming a woman bringing a naked male doll out of a brown paper bag and I was thinking, “Family show, Sunday night”. So I said, “I haven’t seen one of those with all its, er, genitive parts.” And the chap who was with me on the table looked up nonchalantly and said, “Genitalia Bunny” and went back to what he was doing. Anyway, they left it in.’
There was another time when she asked to pose next to a giant teddy. ‘They started filming and I said, “I haven’t had one as big as this for 25 years.” And everyone was laughing and spluttering. “Teddy bear, I mean,” I added. They left that in too.’
Bunny enjoyed risqué erotic novel 50 Shades Of Grey when it first came out – a present from Iain – with its heroine Anastasia.
So when Fiona Bruce asked on camera what her real name was she decided to play a joke. ‘I was giggling away – I couldn’t resist – so I said “Anastasia”.
Everyone who had read the book was guffawing but obviously Fiona hadn’t and she was asking, “What’s the matter with that? It’s a beautiful name.” That went out and the next day it was on Wikipedia that my real name was Anastasia.’
Bunny remains a busy woman who runs her own antiques consultancy and loves to travel – she’s planning to go and visit one of her two grown-up sons who lives in Colombia as we speak.
She admits she’s going to miss her bunnies as she prepares for them to go under the hammer but appreciates it’s time to move on.
‘Collecting them has given me so much joy but now all I wish for them is to have happy new homes.’
*Bunny Campione’s private collection of rabbits will be sold by Special Auction Services in Newbury on Tuesday 24 June.
For information go to specialauctionservices.com or call 01635 580 595.
