BBC Antiques Roadshow expert issues urgent demand to guest as he admits ‘could be worth many thousands!’
On Sunday evening, Antiques Roadshow fans have another chance to see the hidden treasures and historic artifacts that were presented to the team of experts when they visited Clissold Park in North London.
The episode, which originally aired last year, saw Fiona Bruce and her co-stars peruse a wide range of valuable items – from mermaid sculptures to Lewis Hamilton racing memorabilia.
But expert Jon Baddeley had his interest piqued by one guest who presented an arrangement of brightly-coloured music posters from the 1960s.
Putting the guest on the spot, Baddeley probed: “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?”
“Because I am that artist,” the guest confessed to chuckles from the crowd before he explained: “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.”
Keen to learn more, Baddeley asked: “What was it like out there? I mean, it must’ve been really exciting. That was the centre for ‘Hippydom’, flower power…”
“Yes, it was. I can remember and I’m afraid I indulged a bit too much,” the guest replied, again to laughter from the nearby crowd.
Turning the conversation to the posters in front of him, Baddeley asked the guest to provide the backstory: “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 a complete – 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 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,” the guest explained.
“And then that went to production and around town?” Baddeley weighed in as he pointed at the edited print, to which the guest explained: “And it is still on t-shirts to this day.”
One poster, in particular, caught Baddeley’s eye as he commented: “This is my favourite. The Yardbirds, a good British group but also with the great Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, (who were) not (together) for a long time so again, quite a rarity. More importantly, did you keep all of the original artwork you did?”
The guest admitted he had but when he was then quizzed on why he didn’t bring it along, he conceded: “Well, because I can’t find it.”
This prompted Baddeley to ensure the artist took action: “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.”
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He then demanded: “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!”
Stunned by the potential value he was missing out on, the artist replied: “Well, blow me down and call me Roderick!”
Baddeley and the audience let out a laugh before the Antiques Roadshow expert signed off: “Ah, wonderful!
“That’s a first for me!”