TWO vintage railway posters created by a famous Bolton artist are expected to fetch £1,000 when they are auctioned at Christie's.

Images advertising the seaside resort of Mablethorpe, in Lincolnshire, and London Underground's Central Line, were produced by pioneering designer Tom Eckersley.

The posters are among 400 traditional travel posters expected to go under the hammer for an estimated £250,000 at Christie's on October 14.

Eckersley, who was born in Lowton, was educated at Lords College, in Manchester Road, in Bolton.

He died seven years ago and would have celebrated his 90th birthday this week.

His designs were often characterised by witty playfulness and bold, highly stylised illustration.

Eckersley's brightly coloured and eye-catching posters, such as the Mablethorpe offering, were once a familiar sight on British railway station platforms during the steam era.

They presented romantic and enticing views of holiday or weekend destinations when continental holidays were beyond the financial reach of most ordinary people.

Nicolette Tomkinson, poster expert at Christie's, said: "Eckersley was hugely important and a pioneering designer whose work influenced many who came after him. His work is now highly sought after."

The artist is most famous for his clever and witty Guinness advertising posters which usually sell for hundreds of pounds at auction.

Eckersley's talent saw him awarded the OBE in 1948, aged only 34, for poster design.

Although most of Eckersley's finest work was done for posters, he has also designed murals, including for Heathrow Airport underground station and illustrated a few books.

He gained fame by designing a poster in the Tube encouraging more people to travel to the Wimbledon tennis championships.

The world record for a British railway poster is £21,150 which was paid at Christie's in September, 2002, for Henry George Gawthorn's 1925 poster of St Andrew's Golf Course, which was produced for the North Eastern Railway.