The latest episode of Antiques Roadshow saw art expert Frances Christe give a huge four-figure valuation to a relic saved from a skip.
During Sunday’s episode of the classic BBC show, the Roadshow travelled to Firstsite in Colchester where the experts were treated to a stunning Art Deco ceramic figure and a Swiss singing bird automaton.
However, Christie was taken by an “incredible” framed illustration of Waterloo station brought in by a couple.
She quickly surmised the huge poster had been drawn by Helen McKie in 1943, to commemorate the centenary of the iconic London station.
“I could look at it all day there’s so much detail,” marvelled Christie as she analysed the piece depicting the busy station at the peak of the Second World War.
“We do!” the couple exclaimed.
Expert Frances Christie was wowed by the huge illustration
BBC
Among hundreds of figures, Christe identified: “A reunion of a soldier and his lover.You’ve got some nuns, always need some nuns. And then this wonderful procession of soldiers.”
However, the poster was not in such a glorious state when the guests came across it.
“It was destined to be skipped. It was almost in two halves, and very brittle and dirty,” one of the guests revealed.
The couple said they couldn’t let it come to that and found someone to undertake the poster’s “incredible” restoration.
The busy Waterloo scene during the peak of World War II
BBC
“It now sits on the wall,and we just go: ‘oh wow…’” the pair explained.
Christie concurred with their amazement, adding: “The composition feels so authentic because she knew what soldiers were like.”
She explained that McKie spent most of her career as a military illustrator, including a brief controversial stint in Nazi Germany in the early 1930s.
Latterly, the artist drew British naval officers which one of the guests immediately seized on.
“My father was on the Ramillies on D-Day, so in 1943, he probably would have been passing through Waterloo.”
Pointing at a sailor in the illustration, he added wistfully: “Whenever I look and see him, I always think of my father.”
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The sailor identified as reminiscent of one of the guest’s father
BBC
When it came to value, Christe was so amazed she believed the poster could fetch between £1,500 and £2000 “even in this condition”.
The guests, while happy, declared: “It won’t be going anywhere.”
“We’re guardians of it,” they explained
They concluded: “And maybe when we pop our clogs, it will go to a transport museum or railway museum because I think it would be more useful there.”