The handbag that terrorised ministers: Margaret Thatcher's famous black Asprey bag up for auction
It was a symbol of her uncompromising style as prime minister and added a new word to the dictionary.One of Margaret Thatchers handbags is expected to fetch at least 100,000 when it goes under the hammer at auction.The black Asprey accessory was at her side during some of the most important summit meetings of the 1980s, with Reagan and Gorbachev.
History in her hands: Margaret Thatcher at the Reagan White House in 1985It is being offered by Christies on June 27 in a charity sale of items donated by celebrities.Hopes are high of raising a large sum. Last year, a half-smoked cigarabandoned by Winston Churchill in a wartime cabinet meeting sold at auction for 4,500, while this year a set of his false teeth raised 16,000.In 2000, a black Salvatore Ferragamo bag formerly owned by the Iron Lady was sold for 82,110 at a charity auction after a bidding war involving would-be buyers from all over the world.
Handbag lady: Margaret Thatcher's infamous accessory proved a real fear factor for some ministersThe Asprey bag is expected to have a much greater perceived historical value because she used it as a receptacle for state papers.The word handbagging was a reference to Mrs Thatchers abrasive style when dealing with those who incurred her displeasure, and is oftenattributed to the late Tory MP Sir Julian Critchley.It first appeared in print in 1982 when a Conservative backbencher commented: She cant look at a British institution without hitting it with her handbag. The late Nicholas Ridley reportedly quipped during one meeting when she had briefly left the room, leaving her bag on the table: Why dont we start? The handbag is here. The term handbagging was so widely used in reference to Mrs Thatcher that it entered the Oxford English Dictionary.Enl! arge Thatcher with her famous black Asprey handbag and US President Ronald Regan (left) and Japan's Permier Makasoni in 1984In 1988 Mrs Thatcher received a handbag as a gift from George Shultz, Ronald Reagans secretary of state.He told her it was to mark your ability to produce from within the right form of words to end a tedious discussion. You are the first and only recipient of the Grand Order of the Handbag. The political novelist Michael Dobbs, former Tory chief of staff, said her handbag was in part a portable filing cabinet, but was also used to remind people of her power. John Whittingdale, her political secretary from 1989 to 1992, said: It was a prop. She would produce it very visibly at big meetings to show she meant business.
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