Collection of original paintings for saucy seaside postcards sell for more than £60,000
A COLLECTION of original paintings for saucy seaside postcards that was amassed by the late film director Michael Winner have sold for more than £60,000.
The original watercolours which formed the basis of artist Donald McGill's postcards feature young women in bathing suits, fat old ladies, gawping middle-aged men and a host of double entendres.
Winner's collection sparked fervent bidding and the overall hammer price of the works was £53,000. With fees added on the total figure was £64,000.
McGill was one of the first artists to venture into the risque genre of saucy postcards in the early 20th century.
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His bawdy cartoons often pushed the boundaries of decency and he shocked the establishment so much he was prosecuted several times for breaking the Obscene Publication Act 1857.
He was a prolific artist, producing 12,000 drawings over a more than 50 year career, and his close to the mark drawings were copied millions of times on postcards.
In one of the paintings, a man holds a blushing lady and attempts to woo her.
She says 'fancy wanting to kiss me. I didn't think you were that kind'. He replies with 'oh, I'm much kinder than that. You wait until it gets darker'.
Another watercolour features a discussion between two ladies.
The older lady asks the younger lady, who is wearing a red dress and a big smile, if the doctor found out what was wrong with her.
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She replies: "Oh, yes, he put the finger on the spot at once!"
There is a watercolour of two men staring at a little wooden lavatory in the garden.
The vicar says 'dear me, what a very rude building', to which the other man replies 'you'd say so vicar, if you saw the writing on the walls inside'.
McGill also liked to poke fun at the wealthy, with one watercolour depicting a man in a stripped blazer looking glum at having finished his bottle of wine.
And he took a shot at nosey neighbours in a watercolour of a woman spying on a couple from behind a tree.
The caption says: "Peering around the corner, listening at doors, everyone's business making is yours.
"Looking for scandal where there's none about, your name's a nosey parker without any doubt."
The collection belonged to film director and restaurant critic Winner until his death in 2013.
It passed into the hands of a private collector who has now sold them.
In the early 1930s, cartoon-style saucy postcards became widespread and at the peak of their popularity sales reached 16 million a year.
The Conservative government of the early 1950s, concerned at the perceived deterioration of morals in Britain, cracked down on these postcards with McGill their main target.
India Hare, specialist at auctioneer W.H Lane & Son, of Penzance, Cornwall, which sold the collection, said: "This auction presented an exciting opportunity for buyers to purchase from one of the largest - possibly the largest - single owner private collections of Donald McGill original watercolours in the world.
"A vast range of McGill's work was represented within this collection, from archetypal seaside scenes to wartime characters."
