LONDON.- A remarkable group of 11 previously unpublished letters - written by a young Lucian Freud to his first girlfriend, Felicity Hellaby - sold moments ago at Sotheby’s for £122,500 – over thirty times the pre-sale estimate. Written in an uneven hand, peppered with illustrations, and providing a fascinating insight into the artist’s early preoccupations, the letters attracted fierce bidding from a wide range of potential buyers.

The letters were sold alongside three drawings, also given by Freud to Felicity – all of which caused similar excitement in the saleroom today. The first in the group – a charming study of a bird – sold to a telephone bidder for £134,500 against an estimate of £12,000-£18,000.

There was then a stir in the saleroom when the bidding for a second drawing - a striking portrait of a boy with a letter to Felicity in one corner and a playful reference to John Craxton in another - opened at a dramatic £100,000. Competitors quickly withdrew and that first determined bid won the day, making for a final all-in price of £122,500 against the opening estimate of £15,000-20,000.

A portrait of Felicity doubled its high estimate, bringing the total for the collection to £412,000 against a pre-sale high estimate of £58,000.