Antiques Roadshow expert Mark Hill found himself sprinting for assistance on the BBC show when he encountered a rare wartime cartoon.
Dated back to the 1930s, Hill needed military authority Mark Smith’s expertise to pinpoint its exact origins. The cartoon by Bruce Bairnsfather featured a WW1 soldier from the trenches standing beside a royal guardsman, the Express reports.
Fiona Bruce offered her take, stating: “The great thing about the Roadshow is that we have an expert for pretty much everything. So if one of our team is stumped, they can always get a second opinion,” as Hill hurried away to consult with Smith.
Eager for insights, Hill exclaimed: “I’m so sorry to interrupt, Mark. It’s a big one as well – this is larger than I normally see them, and it’s in colour. I mean, what do you think? Can you tell me anything about what you think is going on with this?”
Smith clarified the scene, explaining: “You’ve got the classic Old Bill wearing the First World War uniform, with a walrus moustache. He’s got his medals on, so we’re probably talking after the First World War, because the medals didn’t come out during the war. I think what he’s trying to do is to show between what we would call the ‘smartness’ of the guardsman outside the palace and what a real soldier looks like from the trenches.”
The owner of the unique item told expert Mark Hill: “It was found in my father’s cupboard in the 1980s when he died. It was just in an envelope but it must have belonged to my great-aunt, and she was a bookfolder at Odhams Press.”
Mark, clearly thrilled, speculated: “It could be from the Silver Jubilee from George V or it could be slightly later, 1937, 1938 when a lot of older soldiers were drafted back in and there was an order that they were to take the position of guarding in London, so it’s possibly related to that.”
The owner expressed her affection for the drawing, stating she “loved” it and intended to pass it on to her son to keep it within the family.
However, when valuation time arrived, her reaction was muted as Hill estimated: “It’s large. It’s coloured, and coloured Bairnsfather illustrations are really quite scarce. But it is a little bit damaged. £500-£700.”
To which the owner calmly responded, “Yeah, that’s fine,” indicating she had no plans to sell.
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