Mark Hill was forced to run off from the valuation (Image: BBC)
star Mark Hill was forced to run for help after being presented with an astonishing item. The antique was a cartoon from Bruce Bairnsfather, showing a soldier from the trenches standing next to a Royal guardsman. But Mark was left struggling to give advice as he looked at the war cartoons from the 1930s, and decided to speak to the show’s military expert to get his thoughts.
As he quickly abandoned the valuation, it was explained: “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.” Mark Hill rushed to his colleague Mark Smith for help.
Hill asked: “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?”
Antiques Roadshow saw a war cartoon from the 1930s brought in (Image: BBC)
Smith replied: “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 item’s owner told 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.”
Hill responded: “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 also said that she intended to hand down the cartoon to her son, and was keen to keep it in the family.
However, she appeared disappointed as Hill said: “It’s large. It’s coloured, and coloured Bairnsfather illustrations are really quite scarce. But it is a little bit damaged. £500-£700,” as she replied: “Yes that’s fine.”
Antiques Roadshow airs Sundays at 8pm on BBC1.