The second of three auctions of vintage railway art from a collection described as the most important of its kind, is getting under way. Malcolm Guest's posters advertising trips to UK holiday resorts could make his family £1m.
Thursday's sale at Morphets, North Yorkshire centres on original artwork like the oil painting by William Hoggarth for this Isle of Man poster. Mr Guest worked for British Rail's publicity department when he began collecting.
The first auction in January included 580 posters and made £410,000 - with this one for Southport Lido fetching £6,200. Railway historian Dr Richard Furness said the collection was probably the best of its kind ever seen.
The posters, which Mr Guest started collecting at Paddington Station in the early 1960s, were carefully filed away on shelves. British Rail burnt 30,000 similar ones at Waterloo Station which would be worth £20m today.
Experts were amazed by the scale of the hoard found at Mr Guest's terraced house in Knaresborough after his death in 2009, at 66. It included 2,500 posters from the golden age of steam dating back to the 1920s and 30s.
Mr Guest's family said he was given the majority of the items, but paid a very small amount of money for some. His widow and two grown-up children said they were "pleasantly surprised" by the collection's valuation.
Mr Guest's enthusiasm for trains began as a child in Torquay, Devon with his love of the Great Western Railway (GWR). It grew into a lifelong passion, and he continued to add to his collection until his death in July.
As well as the posters, Mr Guest's haul includes brass cap badges, signalmen's uniforms, a brass whistle, brass locks for carriage doors, timetables and station signage, ticket punches and a station master's oak desk.
Elizabeth Pepper-Darling, of Morphets, said the posters were seductive for their artwork and the nostalgia they evoked for a more elegant age. She said: "When I was working through them they lifted the spirits somehow."
Thursday's auction includes 84 pen and ink drawings by William Heath Robinson and watercolours by Charles Mayo. The third and final sale of about 2,000 posters dating mainly from the 60s and 70s takes place in July.
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