Your chance to own a piece of rail and holiday history on the Broads
Norwich Cathedral It's QUicker by Rail poster up for auction See Britain by Train poster up for auction edp 23/8/02
A poster capturing an era gone by – a time when a holiday on the Broads cost just £4 for a week – could sell for up to £1,200 at auction.
The advert, (pictured left) depicting a group frolicking on the water, was just one of many pieces commissioned by railway companies in the early 20th century to encourage those without cars to explore the UK.
Created by LNER (London and North Eastern Railway), it is thought the 40in by 25in Broads poster is from 1925, just before the invention of the jet engine kick-started the golden age of travel.
Gerald Spencer Pryse, who designed and created the poster, was a war hero who went on to become a renowned watercolour artist.
In the days before easyJet and package holidays, Pryse was among many artists who helped promote the UK's cities and coastlines and open up parts of the country which had previously been inaccessible.
During the First World War he served as an officer in the King's Royal Rifle Corps and was awarded the Military Cross, the Croix de Guerre and mentioned in despatches.
In lulls between actions he recorded the conditions of trench warfare in watercolour pictures.
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Many of these were lost in the German offensive of 1918, but an exhibition of his surviving pictures later took place in
London.
King George V admired his work and some of the images are now in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle.
The British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Tate
also own works by
Pryse.
The poster is expected to sell for between £800 and £1,200 at Christie's South Kensington in London on Thursday afternoon.
To place a bid visit www.christies.com and search Gerald Spencer Pryse.
