Margaret Thatcher's Handbag Expected to Raise $165,000 at Auction

One of Margaret Thatcher’s famous black handbags is going up for auction, and is expected to raise a staggering $165,000, Britain’s Daily Mail is reporting.

The black Asprey bag was a symbol of Thatcher’s uncompromising style during her 11 years as the U.K.’s prime minister. She carried it during some of the most important meetings of the 1980s including summits with Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.

The bag will go under the hammer at a charity auction of celebrity items on June 27.

John Whittingdale, Thatcher’s political secretary during her last years in power, said of her handbag: ‘It was a prop. She would produce it very visibly at big meetings to show she meant business.”

The Mail says the bag could easily fetch GBP100,000 ($165,000). A far-less important bag of hers realized more than GBP82,000 ($135,000 at today’s rates) in a similar auction in 2000.

The astronomical price political junkies are prepared to pay for memorabilia was also shown last year when a half-smoked cigar abandoned by Winston Churchill went for GBP4,500 ($7,400) and a set of his false teeth reached GBP16,000 ($26,400).