A SALE of items once belonging to notorious East End gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray will take place in Suffolk this week.

Will Clarke

A SALE of items once belonging to notorious East End gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray will take place in Suffolk this week.

Among the lots will be a musical jewellery box the brothers decorated as a cottage while incarcerated during the 1970s, and Christmas cards from each of the twins for every year they were imprisoned.

There will also be a large collection of hand-written letters, which are on the Krays' own headed paper and newspaper cuttings.

According to Mander Auctioneers in Clare, near Sudbury, the vendor is the son of a man who was close friends with the renowned criminal twins, but wishes to remain anonymous.

Auctioneer James Mander said: “Over the years I have been asked to value some unusual items, but none perhaps as unique as the 'cottage' we have in our next sale.

“Judging by the content and volume of the letters and cards, his father had become a long and trusted friend of both Ronnie and Reggie, over a period of at least 20 years and this collection provides an open and frank insight into a less well-documented side of their life.

“As far as I am aware nothing like this has come up for auction before.”

The cottage is a typical musical jewellery box of the day, but it has been painstakingly and lavishly turned into a brightly coloured cottage, not dissimilar from the one which features prominently in many of their paintings.

Mr Mander added: “It will be very interesting to see if it attracts the same interest as the Kray paintings auction in July, which saw competition from seven telephone lines, against commission bids as well as a number of bidders in the room”

It is understood that it was a joint effort by both the brothers while in Parkhurst prison and was presented as a gift with an accompanying a letter by Reggie Kray.

The auction is on November 29 at Mander Auctioneers, in Clare.