A RARE 80-year-old railway poster advertising Great Yarmouth and Gorleston-on-Sea sold for �4,000 at an auction in London last Thursday.That was double the sum the poster had been expected to fetch before the sale at Christie's South Kensington.

A RARE 80-year-old railway poster advertising Great Yarmouth and Gorleston-on-Sea sold for �4,000 at an auction in London last Thursday.

That was double the sum the poster had been expected to fetch before the sale at Christie's South Kensington.

It was bought by a mystery bidder.

Nicolette Tomkinson, posters expert at Christie's, told the Mercury: “The poster is very rare. We have not sold this image here in the last 10 years. “Charles Pears produced many desirable posters which are keenly sought after today.”

The 40in by 50in poster was produced by Charles Pears in or around 1930 for the London Midland and Scottish Railway and the London & North Eastern Railway.

A national firm of auctioneers is heading to Great Yarmouth for people to have collectables valued free of charge.

Warwick and Warwick has experts in coins and banknotes, stamps, medals and militaria, postcards and cigarette cards and train sets, die- cast toys and models. They will be conducting a valuation day at the Imperial Hotel, North Drive, on Monday, 9am to 1pm.

A representative of the company said they had been to the area many times before and had always been delighted with the response.

Many people do not realise that they have possessions of value, especially postcard collections, where the black and white real photographic views can fetch from �5 to �50 each, especially if there is a close-up of an early omnibus or a traction engine. Coin collections are also fetching high prices at present, especially those made of gold, the value of which has soared recently.

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