Margaret Thatcher with Ronald Reagan, 1985
The Black Asprey Bag which once belonged to Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher is expected to fetch £100,000 ($165,000) pounds at Christie’s auction house in London. An iconic handbag has a historical value, it was used by the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1980s to carry state papers and also reminds the people of her power.
Thatcher’s bag was photographed at her side during some of her most important summit meetings with President Reagan and President Gorbachev. Her handbag came into notice when in 1980 a renowned newspaper quoted She can’t look at a British institution without hitting it with her handbag. Mrs Thatcher received a handbag as a gift from George Shultz, Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state in 1988. 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 black Asprey bag is being offered by Christie’s as part of a charity auction on Monday, June 27, and is expected to raise £100,000.
It is not the first Thatcher’s item to go under the hammer. In 2000, a black Salvatore Ferragamo bag she once owned sold for £82,110 at a charity auction.