Signed Buffalo Bill biographies to be auctioned

Signed biographies of Wild West showman Buffalo Bill are being auctioned by descendants of a woman who performed alongside him.

The books are being auctioned by Hanson Ross in Royston, Hertfordshire.

Each was dedicated to Lillian White, who toured with Bill, real name William Cody, in the late 19th century.

The books remained in the White family who settled in Runnymead, Surrey, after Mrs White finished her world tour with Barnum and Bailey’s circus – and later with Buffalo Bill.

His grandson Duncan White, 87, said he wanted to sell the books to “someone who would appreciate them”.

Her grandmother had performed an equestrian act with her sister Flory in the late 1800s under the name of the Humel Sisters.

They had performed in the Barnum and Bailey Circus, which had crossed paths with Buffalo Bill’s show during their tour of the United Kingdom in 1898.

Mr White said: “She and Bill travelled all over the world together and she always said he was very kind and a good friend.

“He gave him the first book in Cardiff in July 1903, and the second, which is in French, is dedicated to my father, dated September 29, 1905.”

William Cody got his nickname because he hunted bison to feed workers on the Kansas Pacific Railroad after the American Civil War.

He launched his Wild West-themed show in 1883, which featured Native Americans, prairie cowboys and skilled horsemen from some 40 nations.

He toured the United States and completed eight tours in Europe.

The lot is estimated to fetch between £1,000 and £2,000 when it goes to auction on July 12.

Mrs White died at the age of 88 in 1964, but she had already given the signed books to her grandson by then.

He said: “Living so close to the Thames almost meant the end of these books, their bungalow suffered a terrible flood in the late 1940s and that’s when she gave them to me.

“I was the only grandson and she wanted them to stay with the White surname.

“I’m not sorry to see them go, I’m 87. It’s time they went to someone who will appreciate them.”