A BBC Antiques Roadshow expert brought the show to a halt to advise a guest on how an item could potentially be worth thousands. The expert, Jon Baddeley, spoke out during a recent episode of the show fronted by Fiona Bruce.
Baddeley urged one guest to take action, suggesting they could be missing out on a significant sum. During a visit to Clissold Park in North London, he met a guest who had brought along a collection of vibrant music posters from the 1960s.
Jon said: “So you’ve kindly brought us today a collection of psychedelic rock ‘n’ roll posters. What I notice immediately is they’re all signed by the same artist, how so? ” The guest replied: “Because I am that artist,” adding: “So I grew up just north of San Francisco and I was about 19 when I went to work for the Fillmore Auditorium, and some of these posters were for them.”
Mr Baddeley then asked the guest: “What was it like out there? I mean, it must’ve been really exciting. That was the centre for ‘Hippydom’, flower power…” The guest responded: “Yes, it was. I can remember and I’m afraid I indulged a bit too much.”
Finally, Mr Baddeley questioned the guest: “The two posters near you, they’re similar but slightly different, why’s that?”
The Antiques Roadshow guest explained: “Well, it was a blues show. I did this artwork of blues musicians at the top, a street scene with people dancing (at the bottom).
“But Bill Graham, who ran the Fillmore Auditorium, had had lots of trouble with the police, and he thought that would be provocative,” he remarked while pointing to the depiction of a policeman on the poster. “So he and the printer decided to change the poster. But as far as I know, this is the only copy of the original.”
“And then that went to production and around town?” enquired Mr Baddeley. The guest replied: “And it is still on t-shirts to this day.” He added: “When you talk about value… individually these all are in incredibly good condition, they belong to the artist and they’re very rare.
“So they’re gonna be worth £200, £300, £400, £500 – maybe even up to £1,000. But the great value is the one at the end because that is one of one, it’s the only one known in the world, so that could be worth £2,000 or £3,000,” he continued as he pointed to an illustration of a policeman on the poster. So he and the printer changed the poster. But as far as I know, this is the only copy of the original.”
But more interestingly, you also own the original artwork so please, please, please go home and see if you can find them because they could be worth many thousands each!”