Sir Nicholas, who died last year and is sometimes referred to as Britain’s Oskar Schindler, organised the rescue of more than 600 Jewish children destined for Nazi concentration camps, arranging for trains to carry them out of German-occupied Prague to the UK.
His estate was sold by his family at Oxfordshire’s Swan Auction House in Tetsworth on November 3 and raised a total of £19,400.
Auctioneer Tom Keane said the most surprising result was the high interest in Winton’s leather bound childhood bible.
The bible, bearing the inscription 'To Nicky on Your Confirmation, March 21st 1925, With Love From Father' and bearing gilt initials 'NGW', was hammered down at £1600, against an estimate of £40-50.
Sir Nicholas was born to Jewish parents in 1909 and during the 1930s worked in London as a stockbroker. He arranged foster families for the Jewish children from the trains he had organised in the months before the outbreak of war and persuaded British custom officials to allow the children through.
Knighthood in 2003
His brave actions remained largely unknown in the UK after the war but in 2003 he received a knighthood from the Queen.
The Swan Auction House sale included a Lalique vase, sold for £320 against a £150-250 estimate, and a canteen of Russian silver cutlery, hammered down for £3200 against an estimate of £2000-3000.
A 105th birthday message from the Queen to Sir Nicholas overshot an estimate of £150-250, and was knocked down at £300.
The Winton family decided to sell the bulk of his estate including his house in Maidenhead, following his death, but are keeping hold of a number of treasured possessions.
