Some time has passed since my last epistle, so here goes...

I have had several stands at railway auctions and fairs recently. Derby Cricket Club, Stoneleigh Agricultural Centre (Warwicks) and last weekend at the Bluebell Railway, Horstead Keynes. Interest shown in carriage prints, posters and commercial artists was pretty buoyant and prices of carriage prints in railway auctions were quite high considering the economic climate. As well as original prints, I managed to take the largest selection of reproductions I have had with me and the public appreciated seeing so many images, rarely seen due to the rarity of originals. I hope to have a stand at other art and antiques fairs later this year, i.e. Newark, attempting to take the subject to a wider audience. I met a couple of artists at the Bluebell Collector's Fair, including Howard Burgess. He told me he lived opposite the poster artist, Walter Spradbery, many years ago. I am a great fan of Spradbery's work, particularly his posters for London Transport.

I am in the process of adding a quantity of spare railway posters, safety posters, channel tunnel posters, and original artists' artwork for sale to my website www.travellingartgallery.com and hope to have much of this material online in the next couple of weeks after thinning out my collection. Thanks to those who have shown interest already and have purchased items. I continue to collect material for my collection, particularly old 'photographic' carriage panels and maps and adverts. I even managed to purchase on ebay a carriage print I hadn't got a couple of months ago - Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of Wight! I will pay a good price for new material for my collection or will be happy to swap from spare items in my collection.

Looking forward to seeing Richard Furness's 4th volume in the Poster to Poster series in the next month or so - Eastern Counties, which he tells me he considers the best yet. http://www.railway-posters.co.uk/. His work on railway posters is really keeping the subject in the public spotlight and introduces more people into the world of commercial art and the artists involved.

I have now uploaded most of the carriage print and photo panel images onto the huge Flickr website, which has been appreciated by many of the lovers of older images of Britain who know little or nothing of this aspect of railway art. 

Another blog will hopefully follow soon.

Kind regards to all readers,
Greg