Uk news

A pencil believed to have belonged to Adolf Hitler and given to him by Eva Braun is set to go on auction this week.

The item has drawn interest ahead of its upcoming trip under the hammer in Belfast.

It is said to have been given to the twisted Nazi by his partner for his 52nd birthday on April 20, 1941.

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Originally purchased by a collector in 2002, its top is enscribed with the initials “AH” and elsewhere the word “Eva”.

The possible sale, expected to be between around £50,000 to £80,000, comes at an interesting time for auctions in the area.

An 1869 pardon from Queen Victoria is also set to be auctioned that is believed to have been written for Irish rebels, while a signed picture of Hitler is also going up for sale at Bloomfield Auctions in east Belfast.

The unusual range of items is expected to draw attention from all around, with specialist collectors expected to be the primary customers..

Managing director of Bloomfield Auctions Karl Bennett told the Independent : “The importance of Hitler’s engraved personal pencil lies in the fact that it helps to unravel a hidden piece of history, giving a unique insight into Hitler’s personal relationships, which he scrupulously kept hidden from the public eye.

“This included his relationship with Eva, the woman who stood by him from the start of his dictatorship and joined him in ending their lives together in the Berlin bunker as the city around them fell to the Allied forces.

“Much of Hitler’s personal appeal during his dictatorship derived from his carefully constructed identity as the father of the German nation, who rejected personal connection in favour of loyalty to his country.

“This love token of a personalised pencil from Eva on his birthday helps reveal the deception behind Hitler’s public facade.”

Substantial work goes into checking items’ legitimacy, Karl said.

“It’s through a process of a lot of research, working with the vendors of the items, where they obtained them from and where they have got the provenance from,” he said.

“It’s with a lot of research, a lot of collaboration with the vendors of each of the items, that I can stand over as an auctioneer and give me confidence that what I’m telling people I’m selling is the actual item.

“I’ve no doubt from selling previous items that there will be a lot of interest from across the world.”

He also said he understood why the topic of the pencil was a delicate one and added how the auction was in no way memorialising the dictator.

He added: “I understand why some people may struggle to understand why items like these are sold and collected, but for me, as a high-end collector of militaria items, they preserve a piece of our past and should be treated as historical objects, no matter if the history they refer to was one of the darkest and most controversial in recorded history.

“These items give us concrete ties to the past so that we can never forget.”

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The parents of a young girl who died when fire tore through a family home are in “unimaginable pain”, neighbours say.

Emergency services rushed to the property in the Pontyglasier in Pembrokeshire, Wales, following reports of a blaze on Saturday night but five-year-old Alysia Salisbury died at the scene.

Amid the horror the parents managed to rescue her two older siblings from the burning property, but little Alycia died of her injuries at the scene.

The broken family are currently being supported by specialist officers, police say.

Neighbouring farmer John Davies said he had attempted to console the Salisburys in the hours following the tragedy.

Mr Davies, who is also a Pembrokeshire councillor, said: “As a community, our hearts go out this local family.

“I have spoken to the parents and they are going through unimaginable pain right now and they will be for a long time to come.

“The family moved here around four years ago and although they are very private people, they have become part of our community.

He added: “They had all been inside the house when the fire started. It is an unbelievable tragedy.”

Dyfed-Powys Police said its officers attended the blaze shortly before 10pm and that its “thoughts are with the family and the local community” after the tragedy.

Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, the Welsh Ambulance Service, and the Welsh Air Ambulance were also in attendance but despite the efforts of emergency services they could not save the five-year-old.

Her family has described Alysia as “a beautiful daughter and sister”.

In a statement released on Sunday DCI Llyr Williams said: “Our thoughts are with the family and the local community at this tragic time.

“HM Coroner has been informed and officers will now work with colleagues form the fire service to establish the cause of the fire. The family request privacy at this difficult time.”

The operation saw fire crews from Crymych, Cardigan, Newcastle Emlyn, Whitland, and Fishguard in attendance with specialist kit including a turntable ladder from Haverfordwest, a water bowser from Milford Haven, and the Urban Search and Rescue Team in attendance. A police drone was also used.

A spokesman for the Welsh Ambulance Service said on Sunday: “We were called shortly after 9.45pm yesterday evening, May 27, to a residential address in Dolgoed, Crymych. We sent a rapid response vehicle, an emergency ambulance, and were supported by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service.”

Tributes have poured in on social media following the tragic death with people offering their condolences.

“Sweet little Lysi, you were the happiest little girl I’ve ever met. Rest easy and you’ll never be forgotten. My heart is breaking,” one person wrote on Facebook .

Another said: “Heartbreaking-condolences to everyone who came in contact with this little one, so sad.”

A further added: “Thinking of all her family and friends and also the rescue services involved.”

The firm that inspired Joan Rivers to joke “I’ve had so much plastic surgery, when I die they will donate my body to Tupperware” has gone into meltdown.

Shares in the food storage giant tumbled almost 50% this week, threatening the firm that has kept us busy for almost 80 years trying to find the right lid for the right box.

Tupperware was named one of 10 greatest icons of our time in the Guinness Book of the 20th Century.

Even the late Queen Elizabeth was a fan, pouring her cornflakes from a plastic container rather than straight from a common cardboard box.

The fate of the retro brand invented by Earl S Tupper in 1945 may have been sealed when plastic pollution became the number one threat to the world’s ecosystem.

But long before we knew about the harm plastics pose to our planet, the cheap mass-produced material was revolutionary.

After the war electric refrigerators were appearing in kitchens, but though they meant housewives no longer needed to shop daily, food stored in them would dry out and be ruined.

Then along came the American inventor with a solution – his vacuum-sealed plastic container design based on tight-fitting paint can lids.

Tupper’s earliest designs even made it into a permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. And the 1947 edition of House Beautiful called the product “fine art for 39 cents”.

However, sales were slow at first as housewives were suspicious of this new-fangled material and could not get the hang of squeezing the air out of the containers.

On the brink of pulling the plug, Tupper met a single mum called Brownie Wise who was hosting small parties to sell household goods to pay for her son’s medical bills.

Before long she had persuaded a nationwide network of bored housewives to host Tupperware parties and flog plastic boxes to their friends in return for a hostess gift, such as a crock pot or hairdryer.

The party-plan formula was such a success that Brownie became the queen of Tupperware, driving around in a pink Cadillac and even dying her pet canary pink.

Women could now earn their own cash and build some independence, one vacuum-sealed box at a time.

Dr Alison Clarke, author of Tupperware: The Promise Of Plastic In 1950s America, says: “There was a strong philosophy in Tupperware of women being totally supportive to women. It was like a big sisterhood.”

But it wasn’t long before housewives started dreaming about more than matching plastic boxes. The home-selling party idea moved from pantry to pants when entrepreneur Jacqueline Gold repackaged the idea for Ann Summers parties.

In 2003 Tupperware ended its sales parties in the UK – killed off by internet shopping, cheap competition and cheaper Ann Summers knickers.

And now younger generations are turning away from traditional Tupperware containers in favour of more eco-friendly solutions, such as paper and wax wraps.

There’s also no doubt that the recent steep decline in Tupperware sales has in part been caused by the explosion in free plastic boxes from our Friday night takeaways, especially during the pandemic.

But as the age of plastic potentially comes to an end, we are left with the big questions. Do we chuck our plastic boxes out? Or save them? Sure in the knowledge that they will come in useful one day – when we finally find the missing lid.